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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/24/2018 11:00:01 AM

Megabank Warns Recent Stock Crash was Only an “Appetizer” to “Main Course” of a Major Crash

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/24/2018 4:11:19 PM
Erdogan ally accuses Kurds of releasing Isis fighters to wage terror on Turkey

Leading AKP politician Mehdi Aker says Turkey is making 'progress' rounding up Isis fighters after the group's collapse in Iraq and Syria, but accuses Kurdish militia of releasing their prisoners to wreck havoc

Kim Sengupta
Diplomatic Editor | 3 days ago

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks in Ankara on Wednesday AP

Kurdish militia groups backed by America and Britain are secretly releasing Isis prisoners on the condition that they carry out attacks in Turkey, a senior figure in President Recep Tayyep Erdogan’s party has claimed.

Some of these jihadists, maintained Mehdi Aker, the deputy chief of the ruling AKP party in Turkey, were targeting his country, but others had smuggled themselves across the Syrian border in order to get back to their homelands in Europe and the Middle-East.

Turkish security forces have carried out a series of raids on suspected Isis cells in the last few weeks and around 10,000 alleged terrorists are being held in the country at present, said Mr Aker.

Four thousand of the prisoners, comprised of 146 different nationalities, had fought for Isis or other extremist Sunni jihadist groups. The others incarcerated are accused of being involved with the PKK, the group which has been battling the Turkish state for over three decades for Kurdish autonomy, and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric blamed by Ankara for the attempted coup in July 2016. The Turkish military is currently engaged in an offensive against the Kurdish YPG group in the Syrian town of Afrin.

A number of Britons were among those imprisoned, said Mr Aker, head of AKP’s foreign policy committee and a long serving MP, adding that there was “good cooperation” at present between Turkish and British intelligence services over the issue with “exchange of information which is proving useful” and “progress being made.”

Among the jailed Britons is Aine Davis, one of a group of four British Muslims, the so-called “Beatles”, who joined Isis and tortured and murdered hostages, including American and British journalists and aid workers, in Syria.

Davis, 33, from west London was arrested in the town of Silivri, 45 miles west of Istanbul, by Turkish police in November 2015 after being smuggled out of Syria and sentenced to seven years in prison last year following conviction for membership of a terror cell. Another of the “Beatles”, Mohammed Emwazi, who became known as “Jihadi John”, was killed in a US drone strike in the same month, the same year. The remaining two, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, were captured trying to flee Syria into Turkey earlier this month.

The arrests of Elsheikh and Kotey were carried out by Kurdish led SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) and the two men have subsequently provided valuable information to their American and British interrogators. But Mr Aker insisted: “We have good information that YPG/PKK have released some Daesh (Isis) prisoners to help them in the fight against Turkey, they have been directing them against Turkey. The MIT (Turkish intelligence service) have traced and picked up some of these people in Turkey, but some are trying to go home to the Middle East, to Europe.”

Turkey, said Mr Aker on a visit to London, had always been ready to confront Isis, while the West, he claimed, has chosen to apply “double standards with terrorism” by backing Kurdish militias and the US has “provided protection” to Fethullah Gulen.

“We carried out the military Operation Euphrates Shield against Daesh and eliminated 3,000 of the terrorists. As I said we have 4,000 jihadists in Prison. We have suffered terrorist attacks in our country. We have carried out this fight not just for us, but because we are facing an international problem, look at the attacks in London, in Berlin, in Paris in the United States,” he said.

“But then we have the US helping YPG saying they are allies against Daesh, and we have YPG helping Daesh, that is real irony. We have given plenty of evidence to the US about Feto (the Gulen organisation) but this guy Gulen is still there under the protection of the US government. We also have double standards with the PKK. It is on the list as a terrorist organisation in the UK, in the EU, in the US. Then why is the PKK allowed to operate openly, propagating, demonstrating in all these countries?”

Kurdish militia and activists refuted the charges of collusion with Isis as “nonsense” and claimed that it was, in fact, Turkey which had backed jihadists. Mahmoud Berkhdan, an officer in the SDF, which includes the YPG, said: “For more than a year before Isis became a household name in the US and Europe, our fighters were dying to keep the group at bay. We defended communities and minorities from the jihadists, prevented them from enslaving more women and stoning more dissidents than they did. And, by removing Isis from the Turkish border, we thwarted the group’s efforts to extend its reach deeper into Europe.

“Ever since the Syrian conflict began, Turkey has aligned itself with the wrong side. It cooperated closely with the Ahrar al-Sham group whose leaders were al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan. Turkey also lent support to the jihadists from al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate. And, until recently, Turkish leaders turned a blind eye to the foreign fighters transiting through their country to join Isis in Syria.”


(The Independent)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/24/2018 4:32:10 PM

NEW RUSSIAN SU-57 STEALTH JETS DEPLOYED TO SYRIA DESPITE PUTIN PROMISE OF DRAWDOWN

BY


Russia has deployed its new advanced stealth fighter, the Su-57, to its Khmeimim air base in Syria.

The conflict offers Moscow the opportunity to battle-test its newest fighter despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion last month that Russia would scale backits Syrian deployment.

The two Su-57 jets were filmed landing at a Russian air base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast on Wednesday.

The fifth-generation fighter jets appeared in Syrian skies amid a renewal of violence in the seven-year war. Syrian government forces have been bombarding the rebel-held Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta, killing hundreds of civilians and drawing international condemnation.

The jets’ deployment came soon after a Russian ground-attack aircraft was shot down by Syrian rebels in Idlib province on February 3. The Russian pilot ejected from the aircraft but died soon afterward in a ground fight with militants trying to capture him.

The Su-57, also known as the T-50, has been designed to compete with the U.S. F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

Russian Su-57 fighters perform during an exhibition flight at the MAKS annual air show, on July 20, 2017.MAXIM ZMEYEV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

"Not in keeping" with Russian drawdown

“The addition of fifth-generation fighters into Syria would certainly not be in keeping with Russia's announced force drawdown," said Eric Pahon, Defense Department spokesman, according to Military.com.

"We do not consider these jets to be a threat to our operations in Syria, and will continue to deconflict operations as necessary," he continued.

Russian-American cooperation in Syria has varied enormously in recent years. The two nations coordinated strikes against Islamic State militant group (ISIS) targets earlier in the war, but their support of different Syrian factions has brought them into direct conflict.

On February 7, a U.S. airstrike near the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor is reported to have killed dozens of Russians. The men were working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm and fighting alongside Syrian government forces. Reutersreported that the total number of people killed in the strike could be as high as 300.

Russian and American jets have also intercepted each other over Syrian territory.

Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, told the Guardian, “There is some operational merit in doing this, but there’s also a publicity element,” suggesting Russia might be showing off its new technology to potential buyers, such as India.

How involved the jets will be in day-to-day operations remains unclear. On February 8, deputy defence minister Yuriy Borisov said the military was ″beginning combat trials″ of the Su-57.

If they are used in combat, it could be risky, suggested Ruslan Pukhov, a defense analyst and director of the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

“If I were the minister of defence, I probably wouldn’t do it,” he told the Guardian. “If you lose one of these planes, it could make for big problems. And what happens if the technology falls into the wrong hands?”

The jets were deployed despite Vladimir Putin's assertion that Russia would begin to scale down its military involvement in Syria.ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
(newsweek)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/24/2018 5:20:25 PM
Homeowner gets life sentence for shooting unarmed black man
By JONATHAN DREW | Associated Press


Chad Copley is led out of a courtroom at the Wake County Judicial Center in Raleigh, N.C., in 2016.

(CHUCK LIDDY/AP)

A white homeowner who shot and killed an unarmed black man after reporting "hoodlums" in his neighborhood was sentenced Friday to life in prison after the victim's mother tearfully told the judge she has struggled since her son's death.

Superior Court Judge Michael O'Foghludha sentenced Chad Copley to life without parole a day after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for the August 2016 shooting.

The racial overtones of the shooting were stoked soon after it happened by the release of 911 tapes in which Copley complains of "hoodlums" outside his Raleigh house and tells the dispatcher: "I am locked and loaded. I'm going outside to secure my neighborhood."

Copley, 40, testified during his trial that he would refer to his own son as a "hoodlum" and that he feared for his family's safety after seeing men display guns while leaving a nearby party. However, prosecutors undermined his self-defense claims by making him admit under cross-examination that he lied to investigators about several aspects of the case, including that he had meant to fire a warning shot.

Twenty-year-old Kouren Thomas was leaving a nearby house party when he was hit by the fatal shotgun blast Copley fired from inside his garage. Witnesses said Thomas had no gun, and prosecutors said none was found where he fell to the ground.

"Not a day goes by, or an hour, or a minute, that I don't miss him," said his mother, Simone Butler-Thomas, holding an urn of his ashes in court. "This is all I have left of him. This is Kouren's urn that holds his ashes."

Copley declined to address the judge, but his attorney Raymond Tarlton said the defense team would appeal his conviction to the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Copley's family declined to speak to reporters after the hearing.

Thomas, who was known for reminding friends to buckle seatbelts, had arrived at the party with two other people but they decided to leave because it seemed boring, the friends testified. Thomas had been startled to see flashing lights at a traffic stop down the street and began to jog toward his friend's car because he was afraid police would break up the party, his friend David Walker testified. Thomas was shot at the edge of Copley's yard.

A friend of the victim's family, Nikia Pratt, told the judge that the outcome of the case is sad for all sides.

"No one wanted this situation. Everybody still loses, in a way," she said. "We can't bring back Kouren. We can't bring Mr. Copley back to his family."

Follow Drew on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JonathanLDrew .


(
foxnews.com)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/24/2018 5:52:16 PM

Deaths mounts in Syria as UN weighs cease-fire resolution

BASSEM MROUE and EDITH M. LEDERER


BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government warplanes carried out a sixth day of airstrikes Friday in the rebel-held suburbs east of Damascus, killing 32 people, activists said, as the death toll from a week of bombardment soared over 400.

At the United Nations, a vote on a Security Council resolution demanding a 30-day humanitarian cease-fire across Syria was delayed until Saturday to try to close a gap over the timing of a halt to fighting.

The new bombings came a day after Syrian army helicopters dropped leaflets over the rebel-controlled areas of eastern Ghouta, urging residents of those suburbs to leave for their own safety and calling on opposition fighters to surrender because they were surrounded by government troops.

Opposition activists reported airstrikes and artillery shelling on a string of towns on the edge of Damascus or eastern Ghouta.

At least 32 people were killed in raids on areas including Hammouriyeh, Zamalka, Douma and al-Marj, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war through a network of activists in Syria.

The Ghouta Media Center, an activist collective, also reported 32 killed, saying the victims included 13 people in the Damascus suburb of Douma, five in Ein Tarma and five in Shiefouniyeh.

Syrian state TV reported that insurgents fired 70 shells on Damascus, killing one person and wounding 60 others. It said one of the shells hit a hospital, damaging its intensive care unit as well as cars parked nearby.

The opposition's Syrian Civil Defense rescue group reported new airstrikes in Douma, Arbeen and other towns east of Damascus.

At the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump blamed Russia, Iran and the Syrian government for the recent violence in Syria, calling it a "humanitarian disgrace." His comments came at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura called again for an urgent cease-fire to relieve the "appalling suffering" of civilians in eastern Ghouta by stopping the bombing there and the "indiscriminate" shelling of Damascus. He said the cease-fire must be followed by an "immediate, unhindered humanitarian access to eastern Ghouta and evacuation of sick and injured."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also had urged an immediate suspension of "all war activities" in eastern Ghouta, saying 400,000 people are living "in hell on Earth."

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said "unhindered humanitarian access and the protection of civilians is a moral duty and a matter of urgency."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has called an immediate cease-fire unrealistic and proposed an amendment to delay it. But the Russian amendment was rejected by Sweden and Kuwait, sponsors of the proposed Security Council resolution that demands a 30-day cease-fire to start 72 hours after the measure's adoption.

Kuwait's U.N. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaiba, the current council president, and Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog told reporters Friday evening after six hours of negotiations that members were very close to agreement on a text — but there was still a gap.

"We all agree there needs to be a cease-fire and it has to be urgent, immediately," Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog told reporters. "There are still some discussions on exactly how to define that. So that's what we're working on."

Skoog said he was "extremely frustrated" that the council was unable to adopt the resolution on Thursday or Friday because the situation on the ground is dire.

Al-Otaiba said the council will meet Saturday at noon EST (1700 GMT) and there will be a vote.

The draft resolution demands that as soon as the cease-fire takes effect, all parties should allow humanitarian convoys and medical evacuations in areas requested by the U.N. It states that 5.6 million people in 1,244 communities are in "acute need," including 2.9 million in hard-to-reach and besieged locations.

It would authorize one exemption from the cease-fire: attacks directed at extremists from the Islamic State group and all al-Qaida affiliates, including the Nusra Front, would be allowed to continue.

The Syrian government and its Russian allies say they are pursuing Islamic extremists they call "terrorists" — and U.S.-backed forces are also going after IS and al-Qaida militants.

Skoog stressed earlier that the resolution "is about saving lives."

"U.N. convoys and evacuation teams are ready to go," he said. "It's time for the council to come together and shoulder its responsibility to urgently avert a situation that is beyond words in its desperation."

The final draft does include several other Russian proposals.

It stresses the need for "guarantees" from countries with influence on government and opposition forces to support and create conditions for a lasting cease-fire. The sponsors also added language expressing "outrage" at the shelling of Damascus, including on diplomatic premises, which is a proposal Russia wanted.

Russia has been a main backer for Syrian President Bashar Assad and has joined the battle on his side since 2015, tipping the balance of power in his favor. Opposition activists say Russian warplanes are taking part in the bombing of eastern Ghouta.

A main Syrian opposition group said the international community should prevent Russia from voting on the Security Council resolution, saying Moscow is part of the conflict.

Salwa Aksoy, vice president of the Syrian National Coalition, told reporters in Turkey that according to the U.N. Charter, countries that are part of a conflict have no right to vote on draft resolutions.

Aksoy said that "what is happening in Ghouta is a war of annihilation and crimes against humanity." She blamed Assad's government as well as Russia and Iran for the violence.

Also on Friday, Human Rights Watch criticized the way Turkey is conducting its offensive in northern Syria, saying it has failed to take the necessary precautions to avoid civilian casualties. The New York-based group cited three attacks in the Afrin region in late January that it says killed 26 civilians, including 17 children. It urged Turkey to thoroughly investigate these strikes and make the findings public.

Turkey launched an air and ground offensive in the Kurdish-controlled region Jan. 20, saying it aims to clear Afrin of the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG, which Turkey considers to be an offshoot of its own outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting inside its borders.

According to several estimates, around 120 civilians have been killed so far in the offensive. Turkey denies hitting civilians.

The YPG on Friday accused Turkey of bombing a convoy of civilians that was crossing into Afrin to protest the offensive, resulting in multiple casualties who were taken to hospitals.

Syrian state TV said Thursday night an aid convoy heading toward Afrin has been targeted by Turkish artillery, inflicting casualties.

Turkey's military said Friday it hit a convoy of weapons and ammunition in the countryside of a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria.

The army said in a statement that Turkish artillery hit the 30- to 40-vehicle convoy of the YPG in southeastern Afrin. Aerial video accompanying the statement showed the alleged strike.

___

Lederer reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul contributed.


(Yahoo)



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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