Month: March 2018

Syrian sources are reporting another drone attack on the Russian Hameimim air base south of Latakia:

~ Tim Hogan ~ Leave a comment

Syrian news: The Russian base in Hameimim was attacked last night by remote-controlled aircraft. Noor Center for Studies was quoted as saying that the Russian base in Hummimim was attacked by remote-controlled aircraft late last night without details of the damage.

The military information network in the Assad forces to respond to the defenses of the airport “Hameimim” a plane march and detonated before arrival at the airport.

For the third straight time since the beginning of this year, the Russian base in Hameimim is under attack by a marching aircraft that killed two Russian troops in January. The Russian Defense Ministry has denied that its aircraft stationed at the base have suffered any injuries despite the reports of Russian newspaper Kommersant. Reported seven aircraft hit by an attack on al-Qaeda on New Year’s Eve, and published pictures showing that a number of aircraft were damaged.

This was reported: A senior Russian military official in Damascus two days ago, carrying a message from President Vladimir Putin to the head of the Syrian regime Bashar al-Assad, clearly sets out the points of deployment of the government forces north of Aleppo in exchange for the Turkish army. The chief of staff of the Russian army, Valery Girasimov, usually guarantees the transfer of the field message to Assad, whether by visiting Damascus or staying at the Russian military base in Hameimim and arranging his meetings with those involved, whether they are Syrians or “paratroopers” or “Kurdish protection units.” According to information available to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Russian military leader made an unannounced operational visit to Damascus, which included handing over to the Syrian side maps of the deployment of observation points for the government forces in the north of the country, to be deployed 10 points near Aazaz, Tel Rifaat, Nabal and Zahra, The government and its allies from organizations supported by Iran to add to the other 7 points previously established, not to be close to those points of Afrin, which spent the understandings between Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to go to the Turkish army and Syrian opposition factions backed by Ankara. In exchange for these points, the Turkish army will establish 12 or 13 observation points in the countryside of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo, in addition to continuing the process of “olive grove” to link the areas of the “Euphrates Shield” between Aleppo and Tripoli and Idlib areas. An official in Damascus, the commander of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, told SPAN HAMO of these understandings and points of deployment, which was interpreted by the leaders of the units as a decision in Damascus to “abandon Afrin and the north to Turkey.” This latest communication was a confirmation of a previous message reaching Hamo that Moscow would not allow Damascus to deal negatively and “resist” Turkish operations in the north of the country, despite media statements by Damascus officials describing the “olive grove” as “Turkish aggression.” Asharq Al-Awsat published details of a tripartite meeting that took place in Aleppo, including Hamo, the head of the security committee in the government forces, Brigadier General Malek Alia, and the commander of the Russian Center for Reconciliation on the eve of the launch of the “olive grove” on January 20. At the time, the text of the understanding with Damascus was presented on three items: coordination and field cooperation between the Syrian army and the units, working to repel the Turkish attack and working together to liberate the areas controlled by the Turkish army and supported factions north of Afrin and near the border. Damascus wanted to return to Afrin, whether real or symbolic, but Moscow refused, “because the understandings with Ankara are much greater than Afrin,” according to a Russian official. After that, Damascus sent “popular forces” to Afrin and its countryside, which was met with Turkish bombardment that caused dozens of deaths. This was applied to what the commander of the Russian Center told Hamo and Alia at the meeting in Aleppo, that Moscow “will not support the agreement between the units and the army, but implementation of this agreement is a very dangerous step.” It is also an actual application of what Hamo heard from the Russian chief of staff in Moscow on the eve of the start of the “olive curd” process that Turkey “has the right to defend its national security” and that the Russian army “will not obstruct the use of Turkish aircraft in the attack on Afrin.” Russia’s recent military message to Damascus is paving the way for Afrin to be included in the “reduction of escalation” agreements, according to the Russian understanding, days before the Russian-Turkish-Iranian tripartite meeting in Astana this month which will pave the way for a three- Next month. Turkish forces and the Free Army factions stepped up their operations in the coming days and made rapid progress and have surrounded Afrin from three directions. It was on the outskirts of the city of Afrin after controlling the 135th Brigade, a training camp for the “protection units.” Six years ago, it was the seat of the regime’s forces after it seized control of the strategic town of Jondiers on Thursday. Under the understandings with Russia, Turkey links the Euphrates Shield, an area of ​​more than 2,100 square kilometers, to the Afrin region, which has so far controlled 1,000 square kilometers. It is seeking to expand its area of ​​influence to be the third in terms of territory after the American influence area of ​​one third of the area of ​​Syria (185 thousand square kilometers) and the regime forces and Russia and Iran, which controls half the country. Ankara remains committed to expanding operations to Manbaj and hopes to reach an understanding with Washington despite continued mistrust. The US side clearly told the Kurdish leaders that it had nothing to do with Afrin and promised to defend them east of the Euphrates River. Negotiations between Turkish and US military and intelligence officials on the future of Manbaj were held two days ago. The Turkish side presents a joint presence in Manbij in exchange for the exit of the units to the east of the Euphrates River, in addition to removing the units from the Turkish border and conducting Turkish patrols instead of the American proposals to expand the role of the Arab Military Council and to change the role of the units. The city, with the admission of Turkish checkpoints in the city, which includes a US military center in the heart and another of the Russian army in its countryside. US and Turkish experts prepared scenarios to reconcile the two ministers, Mouloud Javishoglu and Rex Tillerson, on January 19, as negotiations continue to reach understandings on the eastern Euphrates, where Washington has a political priority to control and stay. “According to a Western diplomat.

~ Tim Hogan ~ 2 Comments

Hypocrisy of the US Position on the Syrian #SDF and the Turkish/Jihadist invasion. @CENTCOM

~ Tim Hogan ~ Leave a comment

 

Starting in late 2014, ISIS began to look like it could be beaten. The Syrian Kurdish forces under the banners of the YPG and YPJ, with American help, turned the tide. Now over three years later, another Islamist force has invaded Syria. This time in NATO member uniforms accompanied by a collection of miscreant jihadists including ISIS, al-Qaeda and Taliban. Needing only the Russian mobster/mass murderer Putin’s permission and Putin’s stooge Trump’s cowardice, Erdogan is now planning his future victories all the way to Mecca after he ethnically cleanses Afrin. I’m sure the Iranians are rejoicing.

The US claims it intends to remain in Syria. Its betrayal of its Syrian ally may put that in jeopardy but I am addressing only the legal right of the US to be in Syria in contrast to the right of the SDF to be there and defend Syria from the invasion.

US claims it is threatened by the very parties listed on the 2001 AUMF that Trump just gave cart blanch to for the murder our Kurdish, Christians and Yazidi allies. We claim that Syria is unable to function as a state so we can step in without Assad’s permission to fight the islamist enemy. The same enemy that Trump just green lighted to kill our allies.

That is no legal justification for US to be in Syria. The US fall back justification is that the sole functioning democratic government qualified to participate per the Geneva Communique, the SDF, has invited the US to stay.  At least for now. Beyond that, the US, like Turkey, is simply a trespasser.

But what about the Kurds? They unlike the US, Turkey or its Jihadist ally forces are actually Syrians. They unlike US, Turkey and Jihadists have an inherent right of civil defense, in Syria.  But that inherent right of self defense when attacked by a neighboring aggressor under international law includes the right to bring the war to the aggressor. Every state has that right.

In counties like Syria where the state ceases to function to protect its citizens, as the US claims as the basis for its right to be in Syria, the right of territorial self defense falls to the militia like the SDF.  That’s international law generally but moreover specifically the law under Article I, Sec. 10 of the US Constitution that gives each sovereign united American state the absolute right to make war if the Presidency fails in performing its Constitutional duty to defend from invasion.

If the SDF has the power to give the US authority to be in Syria, the SDF has the right to self defense unlimited like any other sovereign power. Turkey may want to consider the cost of a protracted war with Syria especially if some part of that war is fought on Turkish soil.

Tim

 

Sam Nunberg: Some quick background material.

~ Tim Hogan ~ Leave a comment

It appears that Nunberg was interviewed by the Mueller investigators on Thursday February 22, 2018.  Here is the link to the NY Times story.   Link> Nunberg to be interviewed.

You might recall that Nunberg was the Trump aid fired in August 2015 for a 2007 racist Facebook post related to Al Sharpton’s daughter.  Here is the August 3, 2015 NY Times story. Link> Aug. 3, 2015 NY Times.

My NY Times archive search found a story from Aug. 12, 2106 but the link is dead. Here is the lede: 

Trump, Former Campaign Aide Settle Confidentiality Dispute: Donald Trump reached a confidential settlement with a former political consultant he accused of violating a nondisclosure agreement, concluding his latest attempt to use the legal system to enforce the silence of his employees.

The Times has buried the story but I found this August 12, 2016 article in the Detroit News: Trump, ex-campaign aide settle confidentiality dispute http://detne.ws/2bcH8bT via @detroitnews

New York — Donald Trump reached a confidential settlement with a former political consultant he accused of violating a nondisclosure agreement, concluding his latest attempt to use the legal system to enforce the silence of his employees.

Trump launched the legal dispute with Sam Nunberg in late May by seeking $10 million in damages from the former aide in a private arbitration proceeding. Nunberg responded by filing a countersuit in New York state court last month.

On Friday, attorneys on both sides declined to provide further details about the settlement.

“All I can say it that it was amicably resolved, the whole dispute,” said Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization.

Nunberg’s attorney, Andrew Miltenberg, issued a similar statement in an email to The Associated Press. Nunberg declined to comment on the details of the settlement, saying only that his court case and the arbitration were resolved.

Nunberg served as a consultant to Trump’s campaign until about a year ago when he was fired for racist comments he posted on Facebook.

Trump, who has said he rarely settles lawsuits, has made a point of pursuing legal action to aggressively enforce confidentiality agreements.

The Associated Press reported earlier this year that nearly every Trump employee must sign legally binding nondisclosure agreements. The agreements bar them from releasing any confidential or disparaging information about the real estate mogul, his family or his companies.

A copy of Nunberg’s agreement, which became public as part of a counter lawsuit he filed against Trump, covered all of Trump’s children including his 10-year-old son, Barron.

In Nunberg’s case, Trump accused him of making disparaging comments and leaking confidential information to reporters. Trump made the claims in private arbitration, another common requirement written into his confidentiality agreements that seeks to keep the details of the disputes from a public airing in court.

But in response to Trump’s claims, Nunberg filed a lawsuit in New York state court last month, making the details of the arbitration public. In the lawsuit, Nunberg denied that he had disparaged Trump and accused Trump of trying to bully him into silence him because he chose to support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP primary.

Nunberg said Trump falsely accused him of being the source of a New York Post story that detailed a public spat between former Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks. Nunberg referred to the quarrel as evidence of “an apparent affair,” an allegation that Trump’s attorneys have called “categorically untrue.”

Nunberg has been an outspoken critic of Lewandowski, who Trump fired in June.

In a GQ Magazine article earlier this year, Nunberg was quoted as saying he would suck the “blood out of (Lewandowski’s) skull by the time I’m done with him.”

 

 

 

Is Twitter censoring accounts for foreign powers? Isn’t that a FARA violation and revenue from it in US banks is money laundering? Ask Manafort. @FBI

~ Tim Hogan ~ Leave a comment

First, I’m guessing Twitter will move to shut me up for good. So watch this space. I may be starting my own Rojava news service.  Also watch my Face Book account Tawan Ceng (“War Crimes”) exposing Afrin war crimes. I’m cross posting to that site.

Here is why Twitter’s management should all see their own attorneys.

This is a page from Manafort’s recent superseding indictment. See para. 39.

Continue reading “Is Twitter censoring accounts for foreign powers? Isn’t that a FARA violation and revenue from it in US banks is money laundering? Ask Manafort. @FBI” →

Though only a remote observer, I think a significant fact that distinguishes the PYD in Syria from the folks in Northern Kurdistan is they don’t appear to adhere to Marxist orthodoxy. In four years of observation I did not detect Marxism as part of SDF ideology. Mildly strict military and social discipline but no overreaching socio economic philosophy other than a form of collectivism that appears to me to have grown out of military necessity based more on cultural norms as opposed to political ideology.

~ Tim Hogan ~ Leave a comment

In support of my thesis is that fact that I went to UMass Amherst. While in attendance, I had three Marxist instructors, one former Marxist professor purged by the Soviets from the University of Moscow plus an anarchist legal studies professor.