3496-ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? | View Thread

BEIRUT — Rebel-held neighborhoods in the Syrian city of Aleppo have endured food shortages and devastating attacks throughout the civil war. Now pro-government forces have cut off the only road into those areas, leaving an estimated 300,000 people at risk of starvation.

U.N. officials and aid workers warn of deteriorated conditions in the divided city’s opposition districts. Residents there say that food prices have doubled and that hours-long power blackouts have worsened as fuel for generators runs out.

“We’re not starving yet, but we’re all panicking now,” said Maher Abu al-Walid, 25, who lives in a rebel area. He expressed concern about diminishing supplies of fruits, vegetables and milk for his wife and their 7-month-old daughter, Sham.

On July 7, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army and allied militiamen from Lebanon and Iran seized parts of al-Mallah Farms, an elevated area in a northern neighborhood. That allowed them to use artillery and rockets to stop the use of nearby Castello Road, the last remaining route for supplies and weapons into rebel areas in the city’s east.

This week, pro-government forces managed to place checkpoints on the road, further cementing their control over it.

[In a Syrian town under a brutal siege, a young girl is left deaf and hopeless]

Severing those neighborhoods from other opposition strongholds in the country threatens to deal a blow to the rebellion and its main outside supporters, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which supply Assad’s opponents with money and weapons. That scenario also signals another significant setback for U.S. policy in Syria, which backs the moderate opposition to Assad’s government and formally calls for his departure as part of a transition to end the conflict.

Residents trapped inside the opposition areas could face even more horrific conditions. The government is already besieging hundreds of thousands of Syrians in multiple areas across Syria, and dozens of people have died from starvation and lack of medical care, according to U.N. officials and aid workers. Opposition forces have also besieged a handful of government areas.

This is “a massive tragedy in the making,” said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

In an interview with NBC News, the Syrian leader denied that his forces are imposing sieges. “How do we prevent them from having food and we don’t prevent them from having armaments to kill us? What is the logic in this?” he said in the interview.

Control over all of Aleppo would nevertheless amount to a prize for Assad. Before the civil war reduced much of it to smolder and rubble, Aleppo was Syria’s largest city — home to 2 million people — and a major industrial and trading hub.

Rebels invaded the city in 2012, dividing it between opposition areas in the east and government-controlled ones in the west. Back then, many expected opposition forces to capture the entire city and eventually overthrow Assad.

But this past February, pro-government militants backed by Russian warplanes nearly surrounded rebel neighborhoods and severed another key supply route leading northward to the Turkish border. That left Castello Road as the sole channel to Aleppo’s rebels.

Moscow, a key ally of the Syrian leader, helped turn the tide in Assad’s favor after intervening late last year.

[As Kerry pushes for coordination with Russia in Syria, others in administration cry foul]

Rebel fighters have intensified attacks since the Castello Road closure, firing intense artillery and rocket barrages in densely populated areas of government-controlled Aleppo. Those assaults have killed dozens of people, according to reports in Syrian state media.

Even though government-held districts have fared better relative to other areas of city, conditions have deteriorated. Rebel fighters and militants linked with Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, indiscriminately shell government areas, causing many casualties.

Opposition forces have vowed to form a united front to prevent a prolonged siege.

They have stopped government forces from establishing checkpoints along Castello Road, which runs west to the rebel-held Idlib province, bordering Turkey.

“We are doing all that we can to open Castello or find a new way to reach the city. We must do this,” said Adeeb Alsen, a member of the Jabhat Shamiya force that is part of the umbrella Free Syrian Army rebel coalition.

The rebels say that pro-government forces are bombing anything that moves on the road, named after an area restaurant and wedding hall that was popular before the conflict. It’s so dangerous, they say, that they can’t even retrieve bodies from bombed-out buses and passenger vehicles there.

“The situation is not good,” Capt. Hassan Haj Ali, a leader of the Suqour al-Jabal rebel group.

Residents in the city’s eastern areas say markets have shuttered since the road’s closure, and people are hoarding food and goods. Streets are emptier because of a lack of gasoline, said Abu Hamza, 35, a father of three who lives in Aleppo’s Fardos area.

“We started reducing the amount of food we eat and the number of meals we eat per day because we have to adapt to the new situation. This siege might last for a long time,” said Abu Hamza, a nickname.

Tens of thousands of people in Aleppo’s opposition areas rely on food and medical aid provided by outside donors. Complicating problems is the immense devastation already inflicted on the city’s civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, which have been ravaged by Assad’s warplanes.

“It’s difficult, if not impossible, to resupply the city, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, for people to leave the city,” said Dominic Graham, the Syria-response coordinator for Mercy Corps. He was referring to rebel-held areas.

Residents say that charities and aid groups have stored supplies of food in case of a siege. Even so, people in the area accuse shop owners of attempting to profit from worsening shortages caused by the road closure.

“A lot of the groceries are closing, and the ones that are still open have no items for sale,” said Ameen Alhalabi, a resident in Aleppo who supports opposition forces. “We all know they’re hiding their food and goods so that they can sell them later at a higher price.”

He added, “The situation was already so bad, and now this?”

Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.

(The Washington Post)

The Turkish Coup In Context: Redrawing The Map Of The CIA Drug Trade

JULY 20, 2016

By Rusticus

It’s been four short days since the July 15, 2016 coup d’état (color revolution?) attempt in Turkey, and already, the open-source research community is well underway in digesting what’s just occurred. President Recep Erdogan was quick to place the blame at the feet of his long-time political opponent (and likely CIA asset), a multi-billionaire “refugee” hiding out in the woods of western Pennsylvania – cleric Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, in turn, pointed the finger back at Erdogan, suggesting that the coup was staged for the express intent of centralizing authority.

However, the Erdogan v. Gülen feud isn’t what this article is about; at least not directly. There’s a lot for the curious Reader to sink their teeth into there – from the ever-mysterious Gülen’s activities running the largest chain of Charter Schools in America (funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and currently under investigation by the FBI for money laundering) to Recep Erdogan’s love affair with NATO intelligence just a few years prior. Inquiring minds will quickly concede that this entire Turkish affair is (and has long been) a proverbial rat’s nest of Intelligencia and regime change.

Wherever the rats are scurrying, one’s likely to find some cheese close by – and the opium flows from Afghanistan bound for the Western world provide plenty of it. Buried among the headlines of the day was a story regarding Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base losing power during the attempted coup. When the lights came back on and the dust settled, Incirlik’s NATO-led “anti-Daesh” operations were given the continued green light, though the base’s Turkish commander remains in custody.

While many have been focused on the concerning amount of American nuclear warheads residing in Incirlik, its position as the drop-shipper of refined Afghan heroin bound for Western markets is equally pertinent. A politically uncertain climate in Turkey (to say the least) coupled with the general chaos of the region calls the future of NATO’s longstanding Incirlik drug-running operation into question – and that’s the finest wheel of Dutch Gouda the CIA’s had its mitts on since Iran-Contra.

Fortunately for the Agency (and correspondingly unfortunate for America’s nonviolent prison population), CIA’s “response” to this Turkish chaos has been anything but reactionary. In fact, their preparedness for such a contingency began in earnest years ago – to such an extent that the entire map of the CIA’s post-9/11 drug trade is being redrawn before our very eyes.

The Gulf of Guinea: The New(ish) and (not so) Improved MENA Drug Route

Readers of Stateless Homesteading will recall that back in November of 2015, we published an articledetailing the significant uptick in heroin and cocaine trafficking coming from West Africa – an old route once used by CIA front-men Meyer Lansky and “Lucky” Luciano and their Operation Gladio partners in Lebanon, refined opium would make its way from the Middle East to New York via an airport in Accra, Ghana.

With the explosion of Nicaraguan cocaine stemming from Iran-Contra and the boom in Afghan opium that followed, West Africa’s place in Intelligence-backed drug-running has received far less attention in the modern era; that is, until reports began surfacing in 2013 regarding Accra’s Kotoka Airport once again being used for the smuggling of cocaine and heroin. West Africa, after a decades-long hiatus, finds itself in a position of prominence in the international drug trade – ensnared not by the grip of Operation “Gladio A” and the CIA mob syndicate that supported them, but Operation “Gladio B” and the CIA-backed Salafist boogeymen known as “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM):

via Gulf News

Unsurprisingly, the “refreshed” heroin and coke-smuggling syndicate in Ghana includes at least some amount of sponsorship from officialdom, as the former President of Ghana, John Atta Mills, voiced public concerns that elements of his own administration were involved in the trade. He is now deceased. His predecessor, President John Kufor (2000-2008) shared similar concerns, with cables suggesting “suspicions of widespread corruption, including instances where airport security was suspected of tipping off smugglers.”

In other words, 2013 was not the beginning of the CIA’s West African operations – it was instead the boiling point at which pressure had to be relieved through limited public exposure. With a major scandal from “leaked” US Embassy cables detailing the Ghanaian police’s wholesale cooperation with the drug operation, it was nothing short of a declaration of ownership – a coup d’état in its own right:

via The Guardian

As a major port for drugs bound to the UK, US, South America, and Western Europe as a whole, Ghana has been actively redesigned over the past decade as NATO’s “backup” of sorts for Incirlik Air Base, with increasing fervor towards this aim beginning in 2013.

Ghana is hardly an “ideal” terminal for would-be drug-runners, though; geographically, it’s farther out of the way from opium producing regions and farther still from target “consumer” markets than the Turkish operation currently is. And as the “Grand Chessboard” in the MENA region is still in the process of being flipped, NATO control of these producing regions generally seems tenuous. In addition to its geographic inconveniences, one of Africa’s chief “illicit” crops, cannabis, is proving increasingly unprofitable in an age of Western legalization and decriminalization.

But if a lone blogger can put that much together, the CIA is certainly aware of West Africa’s shortcomings. Opium, as the British learned over a century ago, is the most suitable drug for the aims of population control and Empire. The loss of Afghanistan, currently the world’s largest producer of opium, would seemingly be a critical blow to NATO and its “Third British Empire.”

Of this, too, the CIA is keenly aware, as our story now makes a Transatlantic voyage to the Mexican State of Guerrero. Previously, the impoverished Southern Mexican countryside had only a meager affiliation with heroin production. This has all changed in just a few short years.

From “Fair Trade” Avocados to Drug Trade Poppies

While NAFTA’s Globalized push for Big Ag “fair trade” fruits and vegetables has hardly served to assist the American or Mexican “working man,” its drug trade certainly has; Mexico, by geographic necessity, is a key trafficking route for Central American cocaine headed to America, as Barry Seal, Oliver North, and a slew of Deep State agents learned during Iran-Contra.

So, too, was this lesson learned by the victims of the crack-cocaine epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s.

And while “Peruvian Coke” may catch more headlines, Central America has also been (to a lesser extent) a heroin producing region. Previously growing only low-quality brown and black tar heroin, the Central American product was far less preferable compared to Afghan white heroin from the Central Asian Caucasus or poppy from Southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle” of similar quality.

But quality heroin has done a bit of “Globalization” in its own right, as such “good dope” is no longer the purview of Eastern regions exclusively. Shortly after Colombia and neighboring nations stepped up production of high-grade white heroin, Mexican Cartels (spearheaded by the Sinaloas) abandoned their position as lowly black-tar producers and middle-men, turning Guerrero’s staple cash crop from avocados to poppy in just a few short years:

via The Guardian

Some have even speculated that this global heroin explosion and corresponding quality increase is due, in no small part, to the emergence of Genetically Modified poppy plants. While hard evidence of this claim remains elusive, in a world where even GM yeast has proven effective in producing opioids, the thought can hardly be dismissed outright.

Speculation aside, the CIA’s own “World Factbook” of 2016 not only notes that Mexico is currently the world’s second largest opium producer behind Afghanistan, but that its dramatic rise in poppy production is “statistically significant” at a 31% increase from 2008 to 2009, the last year the CIA provides such information. As no researcher I’ve yet come across, CIA goons and their MSM lackeys included, has successfully disputed the work of late journalist Gary Webb in cataloging the Agency’s wholesale control over Central and South American drug cartels, I’m left only to conclude that these “World Factbook” statistics are as much the CIA’s personal ledger as they are a PR initiative:

via the CIA World Factbook

Considering this uptick in heroin production from Southern Mexico corresponds with the timeframe of the now-infamous DOJ gun-running operation known as “Fast and Furious,” the parallels to Iran-Contra couldn’t be more blatant. Though I’ve paraphrased Mark Twain before, the quote remains as applicable as it is timeless: History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme.

The Turkish Context…?

This investigation started with questions about the future of the NATO-backed drug terminal run out of Incirlik Air Base amidst ongoing political instability in Turkey; and while this author has succeeded in documenting CIA’s longstanding “alternative” to Incirlik being rapidly built up in West Africa as well as the fever-pitch of development to turn Southern Mexico into the next Northern Afghanistan, I must confess that I do not know exactly what this spells for the future of Turkish regime change.

I can, however, posit a hypothesis: As international gold reserves between West and East are being globalized, world currency holdings between nations via the SDR are being globalized, and the “new energy paradigm” of Agenda 21 is being globalized, is it inconceivable to think that the global drug trade, too, is being “equitably internationalized?”

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to this question – but I bet a fly on the wall at last week’s meeting between John Kerry and Vladimir Putin could shed some light on the situation. Perhaps the Queen of Color Revolution herself, Mrs. Victoria “**** the E.U.” Kagan-Nuland, could be on standby for color commentary, as her timely visit to nearby Cyprus discussing the future of Turkey in NATO mere days before the Turkish coup took place is interesting timing, indeed.

One thing, however, is certain: Whether or not NATO retains overt control of Turkey (and even Afghanistan), the international intelligencia responsible for the black market drug trade are more than ready for whatever comes next, up to and including a complete rebalance of power as the region currently knows it. If such meticulous preparedness in bolstering this CIA “cash crop” isn’t evidence of foreknowledge of coups, counter-coups, and purges of all colors in the Turkish political landscape, I don’t know what is.

The extent of that preparedness, nothing short of the complete reinvention of the Western drug trade, also raises far more questions than it does answers. The undertaking of such a monumental task doubtlessly spells correlating monumental changes for the Middle East, a concerning prospect for a land already drenched in decades of blood and Empire.

Like you, Reader, I will be watching for such changes in the coming weeks and months, as I suspect we won’t have to wait long to see these schemes come to fruition.

Blogging under the pseudonym of Rusticus, the author and freedom activist operates a website tracing the machinations of the Anglo-American Establishment throughout history while simultaneously documenting the process of creating a truly off-grid homestead. (www.statelesshomesteading.com)

(activistpost.com)

Questioning The Turkish Coup

JULY 20, 2016

By Devon Douglas-Bowers

As readers may know, I generally do not delve into the ideas of false flags and whatnot. It isn’t that I don’t think that false flags don’t exist, it’s just that it isn’t what I do my research in. However, the information surrounding the coup attempt gets more and more interesting and perplexing, certain events and occurrences don’t make sense.

1. According to Reuters, pro-coup planes had Erdogan’s presidential plane in their sights, but didn’t shoot him down. Specifically Reuters reported that “At the height of the attempt to overthrow Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the rebel pilots of two F-16 fighter jets had Erdogan’s plane in their sights. And yet he was able to fly on” and quoted a Turkish military official as saying “At least two F-16s harassed Erdogan’s plane while it was in the air and en route to Istanbul. They locked their radars on his plane and on two other F-16s protecting him.” [1]

Why would you have the president in your sights, are locked on to him, and not shoot? If this is a serious coup attempt, one of the first things that is done is the capture or killing of a leader.

2. It was reported on July 17, 2016 that due to the attempted coup, a little over 2,700 judges were dismissed “along with several members of the council itself.”[2] That’s a large amount of judges and it seems rather strange to have the coup first be reported on July 16, 2016[3] and literally the day after suddenly have over 2,000 judges that you want dismissed.

This is further backed up by EU commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is dealing with Turkey’s EU membership bid. He has said that the swift rounding up of judges and others indicates that the lists were made beforehand.[4]

3. The coup plotters had no media presence and did a horrible job of shutting down communications and promoting their own agenda via television and the Internet. That’s a special kind of incompetence.

4. This is not the first time a coup has been attempted against Erodgan. There was an alleged attempt back in 2010[5] which Erdogan responded to by pushing constitutional changes, some of which involved the military. Specifically, Articles 145, 156, and 157 made it so that “Crimes against state security and the constitutional order allegedly committed by military personnel would not be tried in military courts but in civilian courts.” This actually worked to Erdogan’s advantage as Articles 146, 147, 148, 149 made changes to the Constitutional Courts so that “Parliament, the president and the Higher Education Council would nominate judges to the court” and “Top generals will be tried for offences related to their duties by the Constitutional Court.”[6]

So, due to Erdogan and his Justice and Development (AKP) Party controlling Parliament at that time (and currently have majority rule today due to winning elections in 2015[7]), the judges on the Constitutional Courts would be hand-picked by the President and his party allies and thus could very well hand out rulings that would harshly punish any those military officials who plotted a coup or engaged in a coup attempt.

Now, the President has tried to push the blame onto Fethullah Gulen, who is in a self-imposed exile, having left Turkey for the US in 1990 during increased legal action against Islamists. Gulen heads the Hizmet movement, “a moderate, pro-Western brand of Sunni Islam that appeals to many well-educated and professional Turks”[8] and has established a number of NGOs that are credited with helping to address a number of Turkey’s social problems.

In the recent past, there been strife in Turkey between the Gulenists and Erdogan supporters within the state bureaucracy. In late 2013, “law-enforcement and judicial officials thought to be loyal to Mr. Gulen went on an anti-corruption drive against people close to Mr. Erdogan, targeting one of his sons as well as several ministers,” but the very next year, Erdogan struck back hard, “purging thousands of police officials, prosecutors and judges suspected to be linked to Mr. Gulen.”[9] So, there is some basis for there to be suspicion of him. However, only ten percent of Turkey’s population, or about 7.5 million people[10], are supporters of Gulen. It should also be noted that this was a military coup and the military has historically been an enforcer of secular rule.[11] Thus, it is rather questionable if the Gulenists are behind the attempted coup.

A coup attempt would aid Erdogan, who has been moving for quite some time to consolidate his own power[12] amid recent low popularity[13], as it would allow him to gain even more power and maintain his control on the state.

More information is still coming out and at the end of the day, only time will tell if the coup was a false flag or not; however, it would be wise to remain skeptical of what is coming from the Turkish government and to keep an ear to the ground.

Endnotes:

[1] Orhan Coskun, Humeyra Palmuk, “At height of Turkey coup bid, rebel jets had Erdogan’s plane in their sights,” Reuters, July 18, 2016 (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-plot-insight-idUSKCN0ZX0Q9)

[2] Harry Cockburn, “Turkey coup: 2,700 judges removed from duty following failed overthrow attempt,” The Independent, July 17, 2016 (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-coup-latest-news-erdogan-istanbul-judges-removed-from-duty-failed-government-overthrow-a7140661.html)

[3] Haaretz, Erdogan Arrives in Istanbul as Turkish Military Coup Crumbles,http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/turkey/1.731225 (July 16, 2016)

[4] Reuters, Turkey govt seemed to have lists of arrests prepared- EU’s Hahn,https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-govt-seemed-list-arrests-prepared-eus-hahn-061434174.html (July 18, 2016)

[5] NBC News, 52 Turkish commanders held in coup plot,http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35526156/ns/world_news-europe/t/turkish-commanders-held-coup-plot/#.V42IWDX9Dm4 (February 22, 2010)

[6] Reuters, Factbox: Turkey’s constitutional amendments, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-referendum-articles-idUSTRE68B28B20100912 (September 12, 2010)

[7] Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey’s AKP makes strong comeback, wins enough seats for single party rule, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-akp-makes-strong-comeback-wins-enough-seats-for-single-party-rule.aspx?pageID=238&nID=90603&NewsCatID=338(November 1, 2015)

[8] Amy La Porte, Gui Tuysuz, Ivan Watson, “Who Is Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed for the coup attempt in Turkey?” Reuters, July 16, 2016 (http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/16/middleeast/fethullah-gulen-profile/)

[9] Financial Times, Who Is Fethullah Gulen? https://next.ft.com/content/63cae764-1332-33dc-8b80-e7bab90c910c (July 16, 2016)

[10] Olivia Goldhill, “Turkey threatens war on ‘any country’ supporting exiled Gulen- like US,”Quartz, July 16, 2016 (http://qz.com/734174/turkey-threatens-war-on-any-country-supporting-exiled-cleric-gulen-like-the-us/)

[11] Janine Zacharia, “In Turkey, military’s power over secular democracy slips,” Washington Post, April 11, 2010 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/10/AR2010041002860.html)

[12] Semih Idiz, “Erdogan continues to consolidate power,” Al Monitor, December 16, 2014 (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/turkey-erdogan-consolidate-his-power-gulen-movement.html)

[13] Press TV, Most Turks hold negative view of Erdogan:Poll,http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/10/21/434349/Turkey-Erdogan-Pew-AKP-Syria-Iraq(October 21, 2015)

Devon Bowers is an independent writer and researcher and is the Politics/Government Department Chair of the Hampton Institute. He can be contacted at devondb[at]mail[dot]com.

Also Read: What The Hell Is Happening In Turkey?

(activistpost.com)

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/21/2016 5:21:06 PM
	Fla. police shoot black man with his hands up as he tries to help autistic patient By Michael E. Miller July 21 at 4:21 AM Charles Kinsey was trying to calm down an autistic patient who had run away from his North Miami assisted living facility when police arrived. A bystander filmed their interactions on July 18, before Kinsey was shot. (Courtesy Hilton Napoleon) Police in South Florida shot an unarmed black caretaker Monday as he tried to help his autistic patient. Charles Kinsey was trying to retrieve a young autistic man who had wandered away from an assisted living facility and was blocking traffic when Kinsey was shot by a North Miami police officer. In cellphone footage of the incident that emerged Wednesday, Kinsey can be seen lying on the ground with his hands in the air, trying to calm the autistic man and defuse the situation seconds before he is shot. [We are tracking every fatal police shooting this year.] “All he has is a toy truck in his hand,” Kinsey can be heard saying in the video as police officers with assault rifles hide behind telephone poles approximately 30 feet away. “That’s all it is,” the caretaker says. “There is no need for guns.” Seconds later, off camera, one of the officers fired his weapon three times. A bullet tore through Kinsey’s right leg. Kinsey said he was stunned by the shooting. “I was thinking as long as I have my hands up … they’re not going to shoot me,” he told local television station WSVN from his hospital bed. “Wow, was I wrong.” Kinsey said he was even more stunned by what happened afterward, when police handcuffed him and left him bleeding on the pavement for “about 20 minutes.” His attorney called the video “shocking.” “There is no reason to fire your weapon at a man who has his hands up and is trying to help,” Hilton Napoleon told The Washington Post in a telephone interview Wednesday night. Napoleon called for the department to fire the officer. [After shootings, police ‘running on fumes…We’re asking cops to do too much in this country’] North Miami has not identified the officer or his race. The department said it is investigating the incident, which reportedly came after officers responded to a 911 call “of an armed male suspect threatening suicide.” “Arriving officers attempted to negotiate with two men on the scene, one of whom was later identified as suffering from Autism,” police said in a statement Tuesday. “At some point during the on-scene negotiation, one of the responding officers discharged his weapon, striking the employee of the [assisted living facility].” Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment. According to their statement, the officer who fired his weapon has been placed on administrative leave, as is standard policy in police-involved shootings. Authorities have not said why the officer opened fire on an unarmed man with his hands prominently in the air. The shooting comes at a tense time for both police and civilians. Police across the country are currently on alert after gunmenambushed officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, killing eight. At the same time, police are also under scrutiny after the fatal shootings of two black men earlier this month. Bystandersfilmed Baton Rouge police fatally shooting Alton Sterling in the early hours of July 5. Less than 48 hours later, Philando Castile was fatally shot by an officer in Falcon Heights, Minn. His girlfriend streamed the aftermath on Facebook Live. Like those two incidents, the Monday afternoon altercation was partially captured on camera. [Live video is now crucial in holding police accountable for their actions. Is Facebook ready?] Before the cameras started rolling, the young autistic man wandered away from a North Miami assisted living facility. A manager at the facility told WSVN that the man was “about 23 years old, he’s autistic, he’s nonverbal [and] he’s relatively low-functioning.” The autistic man sat on the ground, blocking traffic, while he played with a small white toy truck, Napoleon told The Post. Kinsey, an employee at the facility, went to retrieve him. Around the same time, someone in the area called 911 and reported seeing a man with a gun threatening to commit suicide, police said. According to Napoleon, Kinsey was trying to persuade the autistic man to get out of the street when police approached with their rifles raised. With the Sterling and Castile shootings on his mind, Kinsey lay down on the ground and put his hands in the air. “I was really more worried about him than myself,” Kinsey told WSVN, referring to the autistic man. Two bystander videos capture snippets of what happened next. A video from before the shooting — obtained by Napoleon and shared with The Post — begins with bystanders saying “Look, look, look,” in Spanish. “Mira, mira, mira,” a man can be heard saying, training his cellphone camera on Kinsey, who is on the ground with his hands up and trying to get the autistic man to do the same. “Lay down on your stomach,” Kinsey tells the young man. “Shut up,” the autistic man shouts. “Shut up, you idiot.” Kinsey turns his attention to the police. “Can I get up now?” he asks. “Can I get up?” As police aim their assault rifles at the men in the street, Kinsey tries to explain to them that they pose no threat. “All he has is a toy truck in his hand. A toy truck,” Kinsey can be heard saying in the video. “I am a behavioral therapist at a group home. “That’s all it is,” he says, referring to the toy truck. “That’s all it is. There is no need for guns.” “Let me see your hands,” a cop can be heard shouting at the autistic man. “Get on the ground. Get on the ground.” The autistic man then begins to make noises, apparently playing with his toy. “Rinaldo, please be still,” Kinsey tells his patient. “Sit down, Rinaldo. Lay on your stomach.” The video then cuts out, leaving a critical gap in the footage. Seconds later, off camera, one of the officers fired his weapon three times. One of the bullets struck Kinsey near his right knee, exiting his upper thigh. “My life flashed in front of me,” he told WSVN, adding that his first thought was of his family. His second thought was one of confusion. “When he shot me, it was so surprising,” he said. “It was like a mosquito bite, and when it hit me, I’m like, I still got my hands in the air, and I said, ‘No, I just got shot.'” “Sir, why did you shoot me?” Kinsey recalled asking the officer. “He said, ‘I don’t know.’ ” A second video captures the moments after the shooting, as officers placed the injured Kinsey and the autistic man into handcuffs. [It’s true: Black drivers are more likely to be pulled over by police] “He was like, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’ ” a bystander can be heard saying on the video. “Why they shot the black boy and not the fat boy?” “Because the things with the blacks,” another man says. “I don’t know who’s guilty,” adds what sounds like a woman’s voice. It was the officers’ reaction after the shooting that upset Kinsey and Napoleon the most. “They flipped me over, and I’m faced down in the ground, with cuffs on, waiting on the rescue squad to come,” Kinsey told WSVN. “I’d say about 20, about 20 minutes it took the rescue squad to get there. And I was like, bleeding — I mean bleeding and I was like, ‘Wow.’ ” “Right now, I am just grateful that he is alive, and he is able to tell his story,” his wife, Joyce, told the TV station. Kinsey was “dumbfounded” by the shooting, Napoleon said. “He should recover physically but he is really kind of mentally distraught,” the attorney added. “As you can see in the video, he did everything he thought he had to do and then some … and still got shot.” Napoleon said his client was on the ground with his hands up, as in the video, when shot. “Nobody got up or approached” the officers, the attorney said, adding that the fact the officer fired three times shows it was “not an accident. “The straw that really breaks the camel’s back, that makes it even more frustrating, is that after my client was shot, they handcuffed him and left him on the hot Miami summer pavement for 20 minutes while fire rescue came and while he was bleeding out,” Napoleon said. “But for the grace of God he wouldn’t be with us.” On July 5, two white Baton Rouge police officers fatally shot 37-year-old black man Alton Sterling. Here's what you need to know. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) “That toy truck does not come close to looking like a gun,” he told The Post. “The officers had more than enough time to look and make a determination and not just base it on what they heard on the telephone. They have an obligation to go and look and determine if [reports of an armed man were] right and they had ample opportunity to do so.” Napoleon said he knew better than most the dangers cops endure on a daily basis. “You’re talking to someone whose dad was a police officer in the city of Detroit in the ’70s and ’80s,” he said. “I understand it. I had a fear when I was a child of whether or not my father was going to come home. “But at the end of the day, we can’t use that as an excuse to allow police officers to shoot unarmed individuals,” he said. “Just like the police ask the community to not judge them based on … however many bad apples that are out there. In the same sense, they have to be able to hold themselves to the same standard and not hold the entire [black] community responsible for the incidents that happened in Dallas and Baton Rouge.” Napoleon said he was already in negotiations with the City of North Miami regarding a possible settlement. “I have confidence that the city is going to negotiate in good faith and try to resolve this issue,” he said. “At a minimum, we would request that they terminate the officer immediately based on what’s in the video.” The attorney said he trusted the State Attorney’s Office, which is also investigating, to determine if criminal charges should be filed against the officer. Napoleon said Kinsey, a father of five, is involved in community efforts to keep youth out of trouble and in school. “He’s just a solid guy,” he said of his client, who remains hospitalized. “It takes a special individual to work with people with special needs, as this young man did. That shows his character.” (The Washingfton Post)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/21/2016 5:40:07 PM
	‘Massive tragedy’ in the making in the opposition-held areas of Aleppo Smoke rises after airstrikes on Aleppo's Castello road on June 2. (Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters) By Hugh Naylor July 20 at 11:29 AM BEIRUT — Rebel-held neighborhoods in the Syrian city of Aleppo have endured food shortages and devastating attacks throughout the civil war. Now pro-government forces have cut off the only road into those areas, leaving an estimated 300,000 people at risk of starvation. U.N. officials and aid workers warn of deteriorated conditions in the divided city’s opposition districts. Residents there say that food prices have doubled and that hours-long power blackouts have worsened as fuel for generators runs out. “We’re not starving yet, but we’re all panicking now,” said Maher Abu al-Walid, 25, who lives in a rebel area. He expressed concern about diminishing supplies of fruits, vegetables and milk for his wife and their 7-month-old daughter, Sham. On July 7, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army and allied militiamen from Lebanon and Iran seized parts of al-Mallah Farms, an elevated area in a northern neighborhood. That allowed them to use artillery and rockets to stop the use of nearby Castello Road, the last remaining route for supplies and weapons into rebel areas in the city’s east. This week, pro-government forces managed to place checkpoints on the road, further cementing their control over it. [In a Syrian town under a brutal siege, a young girl is left deaf and hopeless] Severing those neighborhoods from other opposition strongholds in the country threatens to deal a blow to the rebellion and its main outside supporters, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which supply Assad’s opponents with money and weapons. That scenario also signals another significant setback for U.S. policy in Syria, which backs the moderate opposition to Assad’s government and formally calls for his departure as part of a transition to end the conflict. Residents trapped inside the opposition areas could face even more horrific conditions. The government is already besieging hundreds of thousands of Syrians in multiple areas across Syria, and dozens of people have died from starvation and lack of medical care, according to U.N. officials and aid workers. Opposition forces have also besieged a handful of government areas. This is “a massive tragedy in the making,” said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. In an interview with NBC News, the Syrian leader denied that his forces are imposing sieges. “How do we prevent them from having food and we don’t prevent them from having armaments to kill us? What is the logic in this?” he said in the interview. Control over all of Aleppo would nevertheless amount to a prize for Assad. Before the civil war reduced much of it to smolder and rubble, Aleppo was Syria’s largest city — home to 2 million people — and a major industrial and trading hub. Rebels invaded the city in 2012, dividing it between opposition areas in the east and government-controlled ones in the west. Back then, many expected opposition forces to capture the entire city and eventually overthrow Assad. Syrians line up to buy bread in a rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo, Syira, on July 12. (Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images) But this past February, pro-government militants backed by Russian warplanes nearly surrounded rebel neighborhoods and severed another key supply route leading northward to the Turkish border. That left Castello Road as the sole channel to Aleppo’s rebels. Moscow, a key ally of the Syrian leader, helped turn the tide in Assad’s favor after intervening late last year. [As Kerry pushes for coordination with Russia in Syria, others in administration cry foul] Rebel fighters have intensified attacks since the Castello Road closure, firing intense artillery and rocket barrages in densely populated areas of government-controlled Aleppo. Those assaults have killed dozens of people, according to reports in Syrian state media. Even though government-held districts have fared better relative to other areas of city, conditions have deteriorated. Rebel fighters and militants linked with Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, indiscriminately shell government areas, causing many casualties. Opposition forces have vowed to form a united front to prevent a prolonged siege. They have stopped government forces from establishing checkpoints along Castello Road, which runs west to the rebel-held Idlib province, bordering Turkey. “We are doing all that we can to open Castello or find a new way to reach the city. We must do this,” said Adeeb Alsen, a member of the Jabhat Shamiya force that is part of the umbrella Free Syrian Army rebel coalition. The rebels say that pro-government forces are bombing anything that moves on the road, named after an area restaurant and wedding hall that was popular before the conflict. It’s so dangerous, they say, that they can’t even retrieve bodies from bombed-out buses and passenger vehicles there. “The situation is not good,” Capt. Hassan Haj Ali, a leader of the Suqour al-Jabal rebel group. Residents in the city’s eastern areas say markets have shuttered since the road’s closure, and people are hoarding food and goods. Streets are emptier because of a lack of gasoline, said Abu Hamza, 35, a father of three who lives in Aleppo’s Fardos area. “We started reducing the amount of food we eat and the number of meals we eat per day because we have to adapt to the new situation. This siege might last for a long time,” said Abu Hamza, a nickname. Tens of thousands of people in Aleppo’s opposition areas rely on food and medical aid provided by outside donors. Complicating problems is the immense devastation already inflicted on the city’s civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals, which have been ravaged by Assad’s warplanes. “It’s difficult, if not impossible, to resupply the city, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, for people to leave the city,” said Dominic Graham, the Syria-response coordinator for Mercy Corps. He was referring to rebel-held areas. Residents say that charities and aid groups have stored supplies of food in case of a siege. Even so, people in the area accuse shop owners of attempting to profit from worsening shortages caused by the road closure. “A lot of the groceries are closing, and the ones that are still open have no items for sale,” said Ameen Alhalabi, a resident in Aleppo who supports opposition forces. “We all know they’re hiding their food and goods so that they can sell them later at a higher price.” He added, “The situation was already so bad, and now this?” Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report. (The Washington Post)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/21/2016 11:58:31 PM
	Inside the hottest gay bar in the most homophobic state in the nation By Neely Tucker July 19 Malaysia Ravor-Black, 38, before her performance at WonderLust, in Jackson, Miss. She has been a drag queen for 20 years. (Annie Flanagan/For The Washington Post) JACKSON, Miss. — It was a big night for gay Mississippi. House Bill 1523, the legislature’s attempt to establish a sort of Southern-fried sharia over the state’s LGBT population, had been demolished by a federal judge just hours earlier. It was the first state legislation to mimic an Indiana bill signed into law last year by Gov. Mike Pence (R), now Donald Trump’s running mate, that let businesses refuse service to any group they considered heretical to their religion. Now the clock was ticking toward midnight inside WonderLust, locally designated as the hottest and most “Vegas” gay bar in perhaps the most homophobic state in America. Inside the spacious, purple-lit club are maybe 30 patrons. A few young women shoot pool. A couple of guys chat at the bar, so modest that it stocks only six brands of booze. The dance floor is deserted. There is no ironic disco ball of happiness on this auspicious evening, no party, no rocking celebration. “It’s kind of a time warp,” says Jesse Pandolfo, the bar’s owner, sitting in the back office, eyeing a monitor that displays security-camera feeds. She’s 32, a mom and a lesbian. Boston native. Wound up here seven years ago. “You have to live kind of an edited version of your life.” Her year-old club testifies to that. WonderLust is an unmarked, one-story concrete-block building on a side street in the north end of town, now open four nights a week, up from two. It is flanked by two empty lots and faces another. The Piggly Wiggly, the Dollar Tree and the Dollar General are just up the street. Late at night, standing in the parking lot of chipped and broken asphalt, listening to crickets in the trees, the actual Vegas Strip seems a million miles away. Mississippi has long been the poorest and most religious state in America. It is staunchly conservative, evangelical Christian, rural, and it forever seems to bounce between its bipolar social features: hate and hospitality. The crueler irony for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is that two of the cultural comforts against the age-old poverty and discrimination have been the church and family — both of which are often denied to them. The 3,484 same-sex couples here represent just 3.14 of every 1,000 households, a ratio that ranks 49th in the nation, according to the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law that tracks gay life. Most of the couples live in the larger cities and along the Gulf Coast. Two-thirds of those identifying as LGBT are women. The true number is much higher, almost everyone agrees, but many choose not to come out. No state in America has passed more restrictive legislation on gay life, more emphatically supported anti-gay referendums, or featured such blistering condemnation from the pulpit or the political podium. Here’s Gov. Phil Bryant (R), talking about his rejection of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage: “They don’t know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and savior.” Bryant promised an “aggressive appeal” of the U.S. District Court’s decision on HB 1523. But last week, his attorney general decided against it. “Continuing this divisive and expensive litigation,” Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said, “is not in the best interests of the state of Mississippi or its taxpayers.” Indiana, it should be pointed out, later amended its law, too. (Bryant has appealed the decision privately, with pro bono representation from national groups.) Still, the demise of that bill — which enjoyed overwhelming support in the legislature — seems like a pretty hollow reason to celebrate. “It’s disappointing that once again the federal government has to stand up for justice and equality in our state,” says Rob Hill, a former Methodist minister and now the state director of theHuman Rights Campaign. As a result, gay life here plays out mainly as a don’t-ask-don’t-tell echo of days gone by. As a group, Mississippi’s LGBT residents draw remarkably little attention to themselves, either by preference or by a social necessity so long-standing that it seems as natural and casually oppressive as the humidity. Sham Williams, 33, an African American banker, is sitting next to Pandolfo in WonderLust’s small, fluorescent-lit back office. The air conditioner isn’t working. Two floor fans beat the stale air. Williams and Pandolfo have been dating for nearly a year, an interracial lesbian couple, a yin and yang of Pandolfo’s exuberance and Williams’s seriousness, of Pandolfo’s Yankee origins and Williams’s been-here roots. “Mississippi is home, even if it doesn’t always feel like it,” Williams says. “I don’t want to go anywhere else. But we are in the most racist and bigoted state in America. When I walk out that door I have three strikes against me — I’m black, gay and a woman.” Jack Myers, owner of J.C.'s. J.C.’s was one of the first gay bars in Jackson, but it closed July 5. (Annie Flanagan/For The Washington Post) Fondren, the historic arts district that lies about four miles north of the state capitol building, is Jackson’s “gayborhood,” home to WonderLust and a low-intensity magnet for a good bit of openly LGBT life. The Eudora Welty house is nearby. There’s Walker’s Drive-In (a cafe with stunning food), the Pig & Pint, some trendy shopping, and a lot of deep-discount stores and fast-food joints. Like the rest of the city, it is predominantly black. Down a narrow side street — you turn right across from the BFGoodrich tire store and go past a strip mall with the Money Man check-cashing place — is a dark-hued, one-story building with “J.C.’s” across the front. It is set behind a sagging chain-link fence. This is Jack’s Construction Site, which was, until it closed two weeks ago, the bar and gathering spot for Jackson’s LGBT crowd for a quarter-century. It wasn’t flashy, but if you are of a certain age it was something like Mississippi’s Official Gay Bar. It didn’t even have a liquor license. It just served beer and set-ups for your hard liquor. There were a couple of pool tables and some vintage Hollywood posters. On a recent morning here sits owner Jack Myers, 71, the patron saint of Mississippi’s gay scene. He has run one gay bar or another in this town for 50 years, starting back when even interracial marriage was illegal. He’s explaining that although J.C.’s always drew a steady crowd, you have to adjust for where you are: “A big crowd would be 70 or 80 people.” As evidence, he pulls out the cash register total for last night, a Friday: $177. He shrugs. “It’ll pay the light bill.” But you can understand why, when the rent went up, he decided to finally shut the place down. [What happens when a ‘gay bar’ becomes just a bar?] Myers grew up in tiny Pelahatchie. His dad was a sawmill worker, and his mother worked at a chicken processing plant. The ancestral estate is a mobile home. He came out as gay in his early 20s. His parents were supportive. He worked as an X-ray technician during the days and ran gay bars at night. “You have a lot of ignorant people here,” he says. “They have this idea of what gay people do. They think gay people are all one way. They just don’t realize gay people have all sorts of preferences and jobs and things, just like they do. They think if you’re not limp-wristed or lisping, well, then, you’re not gay.” The city council and state legislature left him alone, he says, because he ran quiet establishments off the beaten path. Police let him be, he says, because they realized a gay bar was the perfect place for married officers to take their mistresses. “They’d say, ‘Nobody’ll ever say they saw me in here,’ ” he recalls with a laugh. He looks around the bar. He doesn’t think he’ll open another one. He’s ready to retire, maybe go back home to Pelahatchie and open a general store at a crossroads near his parents’ old trailer. At his age, he says, there is a summing up. “I just hate people won’t have this place to come to.” (The Washington Post)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/22/2016 12:23:11 AM
	The Turkish Coup In Context: Redrawing The Map Of The CIA Drug Trade JULY 20, 2016 By Rusticus It’s been four short days since the July 15, 2016 coup d’état (color revolution?) attempt in Turkey, and already, the open-source research community is well underway in digesting what’s just occurred. President Recep Erdogan was quick to place the blame at the feet of his long-time political opponent (and likely CIA asset), a multi-billionaire “refugee” hiding out in the woods of western Pennsylvania – cleric Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, in turn, pointed the finger back at Erdogan, suggesting that the coup was staged for the express intent of centralizing authority. However, the Erdogan v. Gülen feud isn’t what this article is about; at least not directly. There’s a lot for the curious Reader to sink their teeth into there – from the ever-mysterious Gülen’s activities running the largest chain of Charter Schools in America (funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and currently under investigation by the FBI for money laundering) to Recep Erdogan’s love affair with NATO intelligence just a few years prior. Inquiring minds will quickly concede that this entire Turkish affair is (and has long been) a proverbial rat’s nest of Intelligencia and regime change. Wherever the rats are scurrying, one’s likely to find some cheese close by – and the opium flows from Afghanistan bound for the Western world provide plenty of it. Buried among the headlines of the day was a story regarding Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base losing power during the attempted coup. When the lights came back on and the dust settled, Incirlik’s NATO-led “anti-Daesh” operations were given the continued green light, though the base’s Turkish commander remains in custody. While many have been focused on the concerning amount of American nuclear warheads residing in Incirlik, its position as the drop-shipper of refined Afghan heroin bound for Western markets is equally pertinent. A politically uncertain climate in Turkey (to say the least) coupled with the general chaos of the region calls the future of NATO’s longstanding Incirlik drug-running operation into question – and that’s the finest wheel of Dutch Gouda the CIA’s had its mitts on since Iran-Contra. Fortunately for the Agency (and correspondingly unfortunate for America’s nonviolent prison population), CIA’s “response” to this Turkish chaos has been anything but reactionary. In fact, their preparedness for such a contingency began in earnest years ago – to such an extent that the entire map of the CIA’s post-9/11 drug trade is being redrawn before our very eyes. The Gulf of Guinea: The New(ish) and (not so) Improved MENA Drug Route Readers of Stateless Homesteading will recall that back in November of 2015, we published an articledetailing the significant uptick in heroin and cocaine trafficking coming from West Africa – an old route once used by CIA front-men Meyer Lansky and “Lucky” Luciano and their Operation Gladio partners in Lebanon, refined opium would make its way from the Middle East to New York via an airport in Accra, Ghana. With the explosion of Nicaraguan cocaine stemming from Iran-Contra and the boom in Afghan opium that followed, West Africa’s place in Intelligence-backed drug-running has received far less attention in the modern era; that is, until reports began surfacing in 2013 regarding Accra’s Kotoka Airport once again being used for the smuggling of cocaine and heroin. West Africa, after a decades-long hiatus, finds itself in a position of prominence in the international drug trade – ensnared not by the grip of Operation “Gladio A” and the CIA mob syndicate that supported them, but Operation “Gladio B” and the CIA-backed Salafist boogeymen known as “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM): via Gulf News Unsurprisingly, the “refreshed” heroin and coke-smuggling syndicate in Ghana includes at least some amount of sponsorship from officialdom, as the former President of Ghana, John Atta Mills, voiced public concerns that elements of his own administration were involved in the trade. He is now deceased. His predecessor, President John Kufor (2000-2008) shared similar concerns, with cables suggesting “suspicions of widespread corruption, including instances where airport security was suspected of tipping off smugglers.” In other words, 2013 was not the beginning of the CIA’s West African operations – it was instead the boiling point at which pressure had to be relieved through limited public exposure. With a major scandal from “leaked” US Embassy cables detailing the Ghanaian police’s wholesale cooperation with the drug operation, it was nothing short of a declaration of ownership – a coup d’état in its own right: via The Guardian As a major port for drugs bound to the UK, US, South America, and Western Europe as a whole, Ghana has been actively redesigned over the past decade as NATO’s “backup” of sorts for Incirlik Air Base, with increasing fervor towards this aim beginning in 2013. Ghana is hardly an “ideal” terminal for would-be drug-runners, though; geographically, it’s farther out of the way from opium producing regions and farther still from target “consumer” markets than the Turkish operation currently is. And as the “Grand Chessboard” in the MENA region is still in the process of being flipped, NATO control of these producing regions generally seems tenuous. In addition to its geographic inconveniences, one of Africa’s chief “illicit” crops, cannabis, is proving increasingly unprofitable in an age of Western legalization and decriminalization. But if a lone blogger can put that much together, the CIA is certainly aware of West Africa’s shortcomings. Opium, as the British learned over a century ago, is the most suitable drug for the aims of population control and Empire. The loss of Afghanistan, currently the world’s largest producer of opium, would seemingly be a critical blow to NATO and its “Third British Empire.” Of this, too, the CIA is keenly aware, as our story now makes a Transatlantic voyage to the Mexican State of Guerrero. Previously, the impoverished Southern Mexican countryside had only a meager affiliation with heroin production. This has all changed in just a few short years. From “Fair Trade” Avocados to Drug Trade Poppies While NAFTA’s Globalized push for Big Ag “fair trade” fruits and vegetables has hardly served to assist the American or Mexican “working man,” its drug trade certainly has; Mexico, by geographic necessity, is a key trafficking route for Central American cocaine headed to America, as Barry Seal, Oliver North, and a slew of Deep State agents learned during Iran-Contra. So, too, was this lesson learned by the victims of the crack-cocaine epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s. And while “Peruvian Coke” may catch more headlines, Central America has also been (to a lesser extent) a heroin producing region. Previously growing only low-quality brown and black tar heroin, the Central American product was far less preferable compared to Afghan white heroin from the Central Asian Caucasus or poppy from Southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle” of similar quality. But quality heroin has done a bit of “Globalization” in its own right, as such “good dope” is no longer the purview of Eastern regions exclusively. Shortly after Colombia and neighboring nations stepped up production of high-grade white heroin, Mexican Cartels (spearheaded by the Sinaloas) abandoned their position as lowly black-tar producers and middle-men, turning Guerrero’s staple cash crop from avocados to poppy in just a few short years: via The Guardian Some have even speculated that this global heroin explosion and corresponding quality increase is due, in no small part, to the emergence of Genetically Modified poppy plants. While hard evidence of this claim remains elusive, in a world where even GM yeast has proven effective in producing opioids, the thought can hardly be dismissed outright. Speculation aside, the CIA’s own “World Factbook” of 2016 not only notes that Mexico is currently the world’s second largest opium producer behind Afghanistan, but that its dramatic rise in poppy production is “statistically significant” at a 31% increase from 2008 to 2009, the last year the CIA provides such information. As no researcher I’ve yet come across, CIA goons and their MSM lackeys included, has successfully disputed the work of late journalist Gary Webb in cataloging the Agency’s wholesale control over Central and South American drug cartels, I’m left only to conclude that these “World Factbook” statistics are as much the CIA’s personal ledger as they are a PR initiative: via the CIA World Factbook Considering this uptick in heroin production from Southern Mexico corresponds with the timeframe of the now-infamous DOJ gun-running operation known as “Fast and Furious,” the parallels to Iran-Contra couldn’t be more blatant. Though I’ve paraphrased Mark Twain before, the quote remains as applicable as it is timeless: History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. The Turkish Context…? This investigation started with questions about the future of the NATO-backed drug terminal run out of Incirlik Air Base amidst ongoing political instability in Turkey; and while this author has succeeded in documenting CIA’s longstanding “alternative” to Incirlik being rapidly built up in West Africa as well as the fever-pitch of development to turn Southern Mexico into the next Northern Afghanistan, I must confess that I do not know exactly what this spells for the future of Turkish regime change. I can, however, posit a hypothesis: As international gold reserves between West and East are being globalized, world currency holdings between nations via the SDR are being globalized, and the “new energy paradigm” of Agenda 21 is being globalized, is it inconceivable to think that the global drug trade, too, is being “equitably internationalized?” Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer to this question – but I bet a fly on the wall at last week’s meeting between John Kerry and Vladimir Putin could shed some light on the situation. Perhaps the Queen of Color Revolution herself, Mrs. Victoria “**** the E.U.” Kagan-Nuland, could be on standby for color commentary, as her timely visit to nearby Cyprus discussing the future of Turkey in NATO mere days before the Turkish coup took place is interesting timing, indeed. One thing, however, is certain: Whether or not NATO retains overt control of Turkey (and even Afghanistan), the international intelligencia responsible for the black market drug trade are more than ready for whatever comes next, up to and including a complete rebalance of power as the region currently knows it. If such meticulous preparedness in bolstering this CIA “cash crop” isn’t evidence of foreknowledge of coups, counter-coups, and purges of all colors in the Turkish political landscape, I don’t know what is. The extent of that preparedness, nothing short of the complete reinvention of the Western drug trade, also raises far more questions than it does answers. The undertaking of such a monumental task doubtlessly spells correlating monumental changes for the Middle East, a concerning prospect for a land already drenched in decades of blood and Empire. Like you, Reader, I will be watching for such changes in the coming weeks and months, as I suspect we won’t have to wait long to see these schemes come to fruition. Blogging under the pseudonym of Rusticus, the author and freedom activist operates a website tracing the machinations of the Anglo-American Establishment throughout history while simultaneously documenting the process of creating a truly off-grid homestead. (www.statelesshomesteading.com) (activistpost.com)
	"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)
	+1

Luis Miguel 1162 61587 Lima	RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES? 7/22/2016 12:38:26 AM
	Questioning The Turkish Coup JULY 20, 2016 By Devon Douglas-Bowers As readers may know, I generally do not delve into the ideas of false flags and whatnot. It isn’t that I don’t think that false flags don’t exist, it’s just that it isn’t what I do my research in. However, the information surrounding the coup attempt gets more and more interesting and perplexing, certain events and occurrences don’t make sense. 1. According to Reuters, pro-coup planes had Erdogan’s presidential plane in their sights, but didn’t shoot him down. Specifically Reuters reported that “At the height of the attempt to overthrow Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the rebel pilots of two F-16 fighter jets had Erdogan’s plane in their sights. And yet he was able to fly on” and quoted a Turkish military official as saying “At least two F-16s harassed Erdogan’s plane while it was in the air and en route to Istanbul. They locked their radars on his plane and on two other F-16s protecting him.” [1] Why would you have the president in your sights, are locked on to him, and not shoot? If this is a serious coup attempt, one of the first things that is done is the capture or killing of a leader. 2. It was reported on July 17, 2016 that due to the attempted coup, a little over 2,700 judges were dismissed “along with several members of the council itself.”[2] That’s a large amount of judges and it seems rather strange to have the coup first be reported on July 16, 2016[3] and literally the day after suddenly have over 2,000 judges that you want dismissed. This is further backed up by EU commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is dealing with Turkey’s EU membership bid. He has said that the swift rounding up of judges and others indicates that the lists were made beforehand.[4] 3. The coup plotters had no media presence and did a horrible job of shutting down communications and promoting their own agenda via television and the Internet. That’s a special kind of incompetence. 4. This is not the first time a coup has been attempted against Erodgan. There was an alleged attempt back in 2010[5] which Erdogan responded to by pushing constitutional changes, some of which involved the military. Specifically, Articles 145, 156, and 157 made it so that “Crimes against state security and the constitutional order allegedly committed by military personnel would not be tried in military courts but in civilian courts.” This actually worked to Erdogan’s advantage as Articles 146, 147, 148, 149 made changes to the Constitutional Courts so that “Parliament, the president and the Higher Education Council would nominate judges to the court” and “Top generals will be tried for offences related to their duties by the Constitutional Court.”[6] So, due to Erdogan and his Justice and Development (AKP) Party controlling Parliament at that time (and currently have majority rule today due to winning elections in 2015[7]), the judges on the Constitutional Courts would be hand-picked by the President and his party allies and thus could very well hand out rulings that would harshly punish any those military officials who plotted a coup or engaged in a coup attempt. Now, the President has tried to push the blame onto Fethullah Gulen, who is in a self-imposed exile, having left Turkey for the US in 1990 during increased legal action against Islamists. Gulen heads the Hizmet movement, “a moderate, pro-Western brand of Sunni Islam that appeals to many well-educated and professional Turks”[8] and has established a number of NGOs that are credited with helping to address a number of Turkey’s social problems. In the recent past, there been strife in Turkey between the Gulenists and Erdogan supporters within the state bureaucracy. In late 2013, “law-enforcement and judicial officials thought to be loyal to Mr. Gulen went on an anti-corruption drive against people close to Mr. Erdogan, targeting one of his sons as well as several ministers,” but the very next year, Erdogan struck back hard, “purging thousands of police officials, prosecutors and judges suspected to be linked to Mr. Gulen.”[9] So, there is some basis for there to be suspicion of him. However, only ten percent of Turkey’s population, or about 7.5 million people[10], are supporters of Gulen. It should also be noted that this was a military coup and the military has historically been an enforcer of secular rule.[11] Thus, it is rather questionable if the Gulenists are behind the attempted coup. A coup attempt would aid Erdogan, who has been moving for quite some time to consolidate his own power[12] amid recent low popularity[13], as it would allow him to gain even more power and maintain his control on the state. More information is still coming out and at the end of the day, only time will tell if the coup was a false flag or not; however, it would be wise to remain skeptical of what is coming from the Turkish government and to keep an ear to the ground. Endnotes: [1] Orhan Coskun, Humeyra Palmuk, “At height of Turkey coup bid, rebel jets had Erdogan’s plane in their sights,” Reuters, July 18, 2016 (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-plot-insight-idUSKCN0ZX0Q9) [2] Harry Cockburn, “Turkey coup: 2,700 judges removed from duty following failed overthrow attempt,” The Independent, July 17, 2016 (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-coup-latest-news-erdogan-istanbul-judges-removed-from-duty-failed-government-overthrow-a7140661.html) [3] Haaretz, Erdogan Arrives in Istanbul as Turkish Military Coup Crumbles,http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/turkey/1.731225 (July 16, 2016) [4] Reuters, Turkey govt seemed to have lists of arrests prepared- EU’s Hahn,https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-govt-seemed-list-arrests-prepared-eus-hahn-061434174.html (July 18, 2016) [5] NBC News, 52 Turkish commanders held in coup plot,http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35526156/ns/world_news-europe/t/turkish-commanders-held-coup-plot/#.V42IWDX9Dm4 (February 22, 2010) [6] Reuters, Factbox: Turkey’s constitutional amendments, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-referendum-articles-idUSTRE68B28B20100912 (September 12, 2010) [7] Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey’s AKP makes strong comeback, wins enough seats for single party rule, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-akp-makes-strong-comeback-wins-enough-seats-for-single-party-rule.aspx?pageID=238&nID=90603&NewsCatID=338(November 1, 2015) [8] Amy La Porte, Gui Tuysuz, Ivan Watson, “Who Is Fethullah Gulen, the man blamed for the coup attempt in Turkey?” Reuters, July 16, 2016 (http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/16/middleeast/fethullah-gulen-profile/) [9] Financial Times, Who Is Fethullah Gulen? https://next.ft.com/content/63cae764-1332-33dc-8b80-e7bab90c910c (July 16, 2016) [10] Olivia Goldhill, “Turkey threatens war on ‘any country’ supporting exiled Gulen- like US,”Quartz, July 16, 2016 (http://qz.com/734174/turkey-threatens-war-on-any-country-supporting-exiled-cleric-gulen-like-the-us/) [11] Janine Zacharia, “In Turkey, military’s power over secular democracy slips,” Washington Post, April 11, 2010 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/10/AR2010041002860.html) [12] Semih Idiz, “Erdogan continues to consolidate power,” Al Monitor, December 16, 2014 (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/turkey-erdogan-consolidate-his-power-gulen-movement.html) [13] Press TV, Most Turks hold negative view of Erdogan:Poll,http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/10/21/434349/Turkey-Erdogan-Pew-AKP-Syria-Iraq(October 21, 2015) Devon Bowers is an independent writer and researcher and is the Politics/Government Department Chair of the Hampton Institute. He can be contacted at devondb[at]mail[dot]com. Also Read: What The Hell Is Happening In Turkey? (activistpost.com)
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