*** 24-Aug-14 World View -- Narendra Modi and rise of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in India

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Russia's mysterious 227-truck convoy returns from Ukraine
• Philippines to defy China by offering South China Sea sightseeing cruise tours
• Narendra Modi and rise of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in India

****
**** Russia's mysterious 227-truck convoy returns from Ukraine
****


The massive convoy travels in Ukraine towards Luhansk on Friday (AP)

What was Russia's president Vladimir Putin really up to? His massive
227-truck "humanitarian aid convoy" crossed the border from Russia
into Ukraine on Friday, without Ukraine's permission, and traveled to
the anti-Ukraine separatist stronghold of Luhansk. Then the big white
trucks left on Saturday, traveling back across the border to Russia.

Putin says that it was just humanitarian aid. Westerners point
out that only 35 of the 227 trucks were inspected, and some of
the rest may have been military supplies for the anti-Ukraine
militias.

No one knows for sure, but Nina Khrushcheva, the granddaughter of
1960s Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev, and associate professor of
international affairs at the New School, was interviewed on al-Jazeera
and said that it was a public relations coup for Putin. Here are some
excerpts (my transcription):

<QUOTE>"We don't know if [military equipment] was moved this
time or some other time, because it's been documented that
military equipment has been moving back and forth. So it may not
be the case this time around, and military equipment is probably
not associated with this convoy.

Because I do believe that the white trucks are going to be white
trucks, exactly what Putin says they're intended for --
humanitarian aid. This is public relations campaign. He'll say
he's helping the Ukrainians, those who are in humanitarian
distress, while [Ukrainian president Petro] Poroshenko is shelling
his own citizens, and actually causing the humanitarian disaster,
according to Putin. That's the narrative -- he'll say 'the West
is out to get us,' which is what he always says in response to
every accusation."<END QUOTE>

Ukrainian forces have been gaining ground on the anti-Ukrainian
separatist militias. According to Khrushcheva, even if the convoy
contained nothing but humanitarian aid, it still had a political
value: "Even if the convoy was just humanitarian aid, the fighting
will have to stop, there will be a ceasefire, so the separatists, the
rebels, will have time to regroup." BBC and Reuters and Ria Novosti

****
**** Philippines to defy China by offering South China Sea sightseeing cruise tours
****

The South China Sea saga is taking a bizarre twist.

China has been pursuing a "salami slicing strategy" to annex South
China Sea territories belonging to other countries. China has annexed
several islands and shoals in the South China Sea belonging to Vietnam
and the Philippines, and is threatening to annex other territories
belonging to Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan.

The chief of staff of the Philippines Armed Forces is planning to
offer a sightseeing cruise service that will take tourists right
through the islets, shoals and fishing grounds that China is
annexing.

China is already offering a sightseeing cruise that takes tourists
around the islands that China is annexing. However, China's military
is opposing the Philippines' cruise service, saying that it would
violate Chinese sovereignty and may trigger conflict. The Diplomat and Want China Times

****
**** Narendra Modi and rise of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in India
****

The recent election of Narendra Modi, as self-described Hindu
nationalist, as India's prime minister is giving rise to controversies
about Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. The most recently controversy
was sparked last week by Mohan Bhagwat, head of Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist activist group, supporting Modi's
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when Bhagwat said:

<QUOTE>"Hindutva is the identity of our nation.

Hindustan is a country of Hindus.

The entire world recognizes Indians as Hindus, therefore India is
a Hindu state. The cultural identity of all Indians is Hindutva
and the present inhabitants of the country are descendants of this
great culture."<END QUOTE>

He added that the world has now realized that Hindutva has been the
only basis to keep India united since ancient days despite having
plenty of diversities.

Modi's political opponents are furious. According to Digvijaya Singh
of the opposition Congress Party,

<QUOTE>"I thought we had one Hitler in [the] making but it
seems now we have Two! God save India! ...

A question to Mohan Bhagwat - Is Hindutva a religious identity?
What is its relationship with Sanatan Dharma? Is a person who
believes in Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism or any
other religion also a Hindu? Would Mohan Bhagwat please
clarify?"<END QUOTE>

While Modi hasn't publicly supported Bhagwat's endorsement of an
all-Hindutva India, he hasn't disagreed with it either. Hindu
nationalism is controversial in India because opponents associate it
with "Hindutva violence," originally targeting British colonizers, but
recently targeting Muslims. Modi himself became associated with
Hindutva violence in 2002, when he appeared to be complicit in
violence against Muslims. Hostility between the Hindu and Muslim
populations has been a growing trend since the 1970s, and Modi has
become extremely popular, either despite or because of his Hindutva
connection.

While campaigning for the election several months ago, Modi
made several statements targeting immigrants, particularly
Muslim immigrants. He particularly said:

<QUOTE>"I want to warn from here, brothers and sisters write
down, that after May 16, I will send these Bangladeshis
[immigrants] beyond the border with their bags and
baggages."<END QUOTE>

Modi was elected on May 16, but did not repeat his threats against the
Bangladeshis. The Hindu and New Delhi TV and The Hindu


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, Luhansk,
Nina Khrushcheva, Nikita Khrushchev, Petro Poroshenko,
China, Philippines, South China Sea,
India, Narendra Modi, Hindutva, Hindu nationalism,
Mohan Bhagwat, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS,
Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Hindustan, Digvijaya Singh

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*** 25-Aug-14 World View -- AQAP announces support for ISIS

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Violence flares on India/Pakistan border in Kashmir
• Narendra Modi increases tensions in Jammu and Kashmir
• AQAP announces support for ISIS

****
**** Violence flares on India/Pakistan border in Kashmir
****


Demonstrations by Kashmiri separatists (AP)

Two Indian soldiers and four militants were killed on Saturday, when
terrorists from the Pakistan side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the
disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) crossed the border into the
Indian side and opened fire on India's Border Security Force (BSF).

India is blaming Pakistan for the incident, and claiming that
Pakistani forces started firing across the border at Indian border
posts, in order to provide cover so that the militants could sneak
across the border.

Jammu and Kashmir were the epicenter of the 1947 war between Hindus
and Muslims that followed Partition, the partitioning of the Indian
subcontinent into Pakistan and India, one of the bloodiest wars of the
twentieth century. Since then, there have been frequent battles and
skirmishes along the Line of Control separating the region of J&K
governed by Pakistan from the region governed by India.

Terrorist activity reached a peak in the 1990s when the terrorist
group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) fought a full-scale jihad against India in
J&K. LeT was funded by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)
agency, before the Pakistan government banned LeT in 2002. However,
LeT was still responsible for the horrific '11/26' three-day, 60 hour terrorist attack in Mumbai in November, 2008.
That attack almost led to war between India and
Pakistan, as India threatened to send its army to pursue LeT on
Pakistani soil. War was avoided only by hard on-site negotiations by
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. LeT continues to operate in
J&K, and India believes that Pakistan's ISI continues to fund and
support its activities.

Violence in J&K has been reduced in recent years, but it's feared that
tensions are rising again, with the election of Narendra Modi as prime
minister. Hindustan Times and BBC and Dawn (Pakistan)

****
**** Narendra Modi increases tensions in Jammu and Kashmir
****

Tensions and unrest have increased in J&K since the election of
self-described Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi in May as prime
minister. ( "24-Aug-14 World View -- Narendra Modi and rise of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in India"
)

Modi has called for the repeal of "Article 370" in India's
constitution, which guarantees a special status for J&K, and gives the
province self-governance in many areas, but excluding defense and
foreign affairs. Article 370 was part of the agreement in 1947 that
allowed India to control its part of J&K. Proponents of the repeal
say that citizens of J&K should have exactly the same rights and
obligations as every other citizen of India, while opponents say that
if J&K loses its self-governance, then it will cause anti-government
demonstrations.

The India and Pakistan governments have held regular talks on the J&K
problem, with a view to reducing the amount of violence. These talks
were always pretty tense, but Modi canceled them completely last week,
when a Pakistani government official traveled to Kashmir to meet with
the leaders of Hurriyet Conference, an activist group promoting the
separation of J&K from India. According to Hurriyet leaders, the
people of J&K should have the right to self-determination, and
Pakistan is the only country that fully supports their cause.

Generational Dynamics predicts that Hindus and Muslims will re-fight
the bloody war that followed Partition in 1947, and that Jammu and
Kashmir will once again be a flash point. Kashmir Media and Times of India and Dawn (Pakistan)

****
**** AQAP announces support for ISIS
****

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), headquartered in Yemen, has
issued a statement of support for the Islamic State / of Iraq and
Syria (IS or ISIS):

<QUOTE>"We announce solidarity with our Muslim brothers in
Iraq against the crusade. Their blood and injuries are ours and we
will surely support them. We assert to the Islamic Nation [all
Muslims worldwide] that we stand by the side of our Muslim
brothers in Iraq against the American and Iranian conspiracy and
their agents of the apostate Gulf rulers."<END QUOTE>

A union between ISIS and AQAP has been feared by analysts, because it
would make the highly sophisticated bomb-making capabilities of AQAP
available to ISIS, and to the thousands of young European and American
men with clean passports who have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with
ISIS.

The AQAP statement provides some hard-learned lessons to the ISIS
terrorists:

<QUOTE>"Based on our experience with drones, we advise our
brothers in Iraq to be cautious about spies among them because
they are a key factor in setting goals; be cautious about dealing
with cell phones and internet networks; do not gather in large
numbers or move in large convoys; spread in farms or hide under
trees in the case of loud humming of warplanes; and dig
sophisticated trenches because they reduce the impact of
shelling."<END QUOTE>

However, this expression of brotherly love may run into serious
political difficulties. AQAP is, as the name implies, a branch of
al-Qaeda, and in fact is the leading branch of al-Qaeda these days.
But ISIS is NOT a branch of al-Qaeda, and has severed connections with
al-Qaeda. This has split the AQAP leadership in Yemen between those
who support and those who oppose a liaison with ISIS. However, even
with no formal relationship, there is already evidence that the two
groups are sharing advice and providing training to each other.
Yemen Times


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, India, Pakistan, Kashmir, Jammu, Line of Control,
Lashkar-e-Toiba, LeT, Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI,
Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism, Article 370, Partition,
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP,
Yemen, Syria, Iraq,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL

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It's time for the civilized countries to crank up the intensity of the game, vis a vis treason. I'm not talking about protestors, or even those who've expressed thoughts of overthrow. I'm referring to people who overtly join with the enemy, like Jihad Johnny, who ain't rappin' no more. We need to up the game and severely prosecute treason. In the US, it carries the death penalty, in theory. Time to make it more than just a theory. Too bad the UK gave it up. At least they can lock 'em up until they die.

*** 26-Aug-14 World View -- Egypt and United Arab Emirates (UAE) enter the war in Libya

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Egypt and United Arab Emirates (UAE) enter the war in Libya
• The Obama Administration and the Mideast
• Democratic Republic of Congo becomes 5th country with confirmed Ebola
• Frightened Syrian leadership asks for American help with ISIS
• Nigerian troops apparently flee from Boko Haram into Cameroon

****
**** Egypt and United Arab Emirates (UAE) enter the war in Libya
****


Until a few weeks ago, this was the main concourse in the main airport in Tripoli, Libya

As we reported last week,

warplanes bombed militia bases in Tripoli, the capital city of Libya,
in the early morning hours of last Monday. The problem was that
nobody knew whose warplanes they were, since Libyan warplanes don't
have the sophisticated night vision or laser-guided technologies
necessary to carry these precisions night-time strikes. The mystery
deepened on Saturday, when the warplane strikes were repeated.

Now the mystery has been solved. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates
secretly teamed to launch airstrikes against Islamist militias, led by
ultraconservative Islamist Salah Badi, from the coastal city of
Misrata. They're opposed by secular militias, former supporters of
Muammar Gaddafi, mainly from the town of Zintan and led by former
renegade colonel Khalifa Hifter.

The war in Libya is between militias along a major growing fault line
that was exposed by the Gaza war of Israel versus Hamas. Hamas and
the Islamists, including the Islamists in Libya and the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt, are aligned with Turkey and Qatar. The
secularists, including the Libyan secularists and president Abdel
al-Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, are on the other side of this fault line,
aligned with UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Qatar and UAE have been supplying weapons to the opposing sides, the
Islamists and secularists, respectively, in Libya, making it something
of a proxy war. The warplane strikes used the UAE air force,
considered to be one of the most sophisticated in the region, with
logistics support from Egypt. However, the direct involvement of UAE
and Egypt is a major escalation in the Libyan war because it changes
it from a proxy war to a direct war. National Post/NYT and Gulf News

****
**** The Obama Administration and the Mideast
****

From the point of view of politics, the most important paragraph was
the following, reported by the New York Times:

<QUOTE>"The United States, the officials said, was caught by
surprise: Egypt and the Emirates [UAE], both close allies and
military partners, acted without informing Washington or seeking
its consent, leaving the Obama administration on the
sidelines. Egyptian officials explicitly denied the operation to
U.S. diplomats, the officials said."<END QUOTE>

Even a few weeks ago, anyone bombing Libya would have coordinated with
or at least notified the United States. But the bumbling, farcical
foreign policy of President Barack Obama and his clownish Secretary of
State John Kerry has made the Obama administration untrustworthy and
irrelevant.

Probably the last straw for anyone occurred during the early days of
Gaza war. Kerry went to a "peace conference" in Geneva, where he met
with Hamas's allies, Qatar and Turkey, and drew up a "peace proposal"
which was no more than a list of Hamas's demands. He then sent this
proposal for comment to Israel and Egypt, who found it absolutely
appalling.

This comes after years of overt hostility to Israel and to the
secularists in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and overt friendliness to the
Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, including veiled support for Hamas. The
first major step in that direction, from the view of the Mideast, was
throwing Egypt's long-time leader and ally Hosni Mubarak under the bus
in 2011, particularly infuriating the Saudis, who simply do not trust
Obama on any issue any more. The New York Times referred to Egypt and
the UAE as "close allies and military partners," but that's wishful
thinking.

There's been a lot of talk recently that President Obama seems
"detached," plays golf all the time, doesn't enjoy his job, doesn't
like governing. This is not surprising.

I'm going to retell something I've mentioned several times. When
Obama was campaigning in 2008, he said a number of things that were
truly crazy, the most famous of which was that when he was elected the
earth would heal and the tides would recede. I thought statements
like that were amusing, because they were the sorts of ridiculous
empty promises that any politician would make during a campaign.

But I remember how truly shocked I was, after the election, when he
kept saying the same things. It was then that I realized that he
actually believed what he'd been promising, and I said to myself that
he and the nation were in trouble.

It's hard to overestimate how disastrous Obama's experience has been
to him personally. After 20 years of listening to Reverend Jeremiah
Wright scream, "God Damn America! God Damn America! God Damn
America!", Obama really believed that America was the source of all
evil in the world, and that he could heal the world by apologizing and
making things right. He also expected to become a national hero by
implementing universal health care. According to some reports, he was
expecting, as late as a few days before the Obamacare launch in 2013,
that he would be hearing calls for him to run for a third term.

What has happened goes well beyond an ideological failure. This is a
disastrous personal failure for the president. Obamacare has been a
disaster, with the worst yet to come, and he knows it. Every foreign
policy initiative has been a disaster or near-disaster, as the Libyan
situation shows. And now, the worst disaster of all: Obama is being
dragged back into the war in Iraq.

It's not surprising that he spends as much time as he can on the golf
course, and openly couldn't care less what people think of his doing
so. He's governing in a world that's completely foreign to him, where
everything he's ever believed is turning out to be completely wrong
and upside down. It's hard to identify a single policy area where
Obama was not "wrong." So it's not surprising that he's "detaching"
himself from his job. The golf course is the only place that makes
sense, where he can escape from the intense depression and confusion
that he must be suffering.

I recall that president George W. Bush said that prior to 9/11 he had
no idea what he was going to do as president, and he was confused
about how he was supposed to lead the nation. But after 9/11, he
suddenly knew why God had made him president. He was going to lead
the nation through this time of peril. His confusion had turned to
certainty, and pursuit of a clear direction.

President Obama has gone through the opposite experience. He became
president knowing exactly what he had to do and how he would do it.
But every policy has turned back to indirection and confusion. Obama
still has two and one-half years as president, and so far he's doubled
down on many bad decisions that he's made. If he keeps doing so, he's
going to make things a lot worse, for himself and the nation.
National Post/NYT and Salon

****
**** Democratic Republic of Congo becomes 5th country with confirmed Ebola
****

The Ebola virus has been confirmed in two patients in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). However, this is a completely different
strain from the Ebola virus that's out of control in West Africa, as
if it were a completely different disease. Ebola was first identified
in DRC near the Ebola river in 1976, and this has been the seventh
outbreak since then. DRC has gained a lot of experience in dealing
with Ebola during the last six outbreaks, and it's not expected that
the DRC outbreak will spiral out of control. Guardian (London)

****
**** Frightened Syrian leadership asks for American help with ISIS
****

This story would be hilarious, if it weren't for the number of people
who are being tortured or killed.

The forces of the regime of Syria's genocidal monster president Bashar
al-Assad are losing ground to the Islamic State / of Iraq and
Syria (IS or ISIS), and they're asking for help from us, of all
people. They want us to bomb ISIS targets in Syria, just as we've
bombed ISIS targets in Iraq -- but only if we ask the al-Assad
regime's permission for each target. You have my permission, Dear
Reader, to enjoy a little bit of Schadenfreude. But only a little
bit, because there are people being tortured and killed, many by the
genocidal monster Bashar al-Assad, who's actions are responsible for
the rise of ISIS. AFP

****
**** Nigerian troops apparently flee from Boko Haram into Cameroon
****

Some 480 Nigerian soldiers crossed the border into Cameroon after
fierce fighting with Boko Haram militants.

The Nigerian government and army have been under extremely heavy
criticism since April, when Boko Haram abducted over 200 schoolgirls,
and the government and army seemed paralyzed for weeks, doing nothing
about it. The girls have still not been recovered.

There have been numerous reports and rumors of Nigerian troops either
supporting Boko Haram or afraid to engage Boko Haram. There have been
reports that the Boko Haram militants are better equipped than
Nigerian army troops.

So this time, the Nigerian government says that the 480 Nigerian
soldiers were not just fleeing, but were engaging in a "tactical
maneuver." The Nigerian defense ministry said that the soldiers were
"charging through the borders [of Cameroon] in a tactical maneuver"
after a sustained battle. Whether that explanation will be believed
remains to be seen. BBC


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Libya, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, UAE,
Misrata, Salah Badi, Muammar Gaddafi, Zintan, Khalifa Hifter,
Hamas, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Hosni Mubarak,
Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood, Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi,
Jeremiah Wright, John Kerry, George W Bush,
Ebola, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,
Syria, Iraq, Bashar al-Assad,
Nigeria, Cameroon, Boko Haram

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*** 27-Aug-14 World View -- Israel and Hamas agree to 'long-term' truce in Gaza war

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Islamic 'halal' tourism surges in Turkey
• Israel and Hamas agree to 'long-term' truce in Gaza war
• Egypt denies militarily intervening in Libya

****
**** Islamic 'halal' tourism surges in Turkey
****


Adenya Islamic Hotel & Resort in Avsallar, Turkey

There are currently 75 hotels in Turkey, up from 5 in 2002,
deliberately identifying themselves as "Islamic hotels" for "halal
vacations." Demand for such hotels is soaring, and Muslims from
around the world are coming to Turkey as the most Islamic-friendly
destination in Europe.

These hotels strictly forbid alcohol and pork, and serve only halal
(Islamic) meals. Families can have meals together, but the hotels
emphasize segregation of men and women. Women have separate beaches,
separate pools, and separate prayer rooms. According to one woman,
"You don't have to worry about people taking photographs of you and
ending up on Facebook or wherever. So you can be completely relaxed."

The halal tourism sector was worth 103 billion euros in 2013,
representing around 13 percent of global travel expenditures.
Zaman (Istanbul) and BBC

****
**** Israel and Hamas agree to 'long-term' truce in Gaza war
****

There are massive celebrations on the streets of Gaza on Tuesday,
as leaders of Hamas declared "victory" over Israel in the recent
war, claiming that Israel was forced to agree to a ceasefire
since Hamas rockets could strike anywhere in Israel, and could
force Israel's airport in Tel Aviv to shut down.

A number of Israeli politicians agreed, in that Hamas has not
been demilitarized, which was supposedly Israel's major
objective in the war. According to MK Eli Yishai:

<QUOTE>"This will be time for Hamas to resupply itself with
weaponry to use against Israel. Not demilitarizing Gaza will
bring Israel to another round of fighting that will be even
worse."<END QUOTE>

The terms of the cease-fire agreement are as follows:

• A lifting of the blockade on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, opening
  border crossing and allowing goods and people to pass back and forth.
  However, the limitations on these border crossing openings were
  not discussed.
• Israel will stop targeting Hamas leaders and commanders.
• Gaza's fishermen will be able to fish in a larger zone,
  extending six miles offshore.
• Discussions of opening Gaza's airports and seaports to start in a
  month.

One commentator on BBC pointed out that anyone in Gaza can build
a rocket in his basement and launch it towards Israel, bringing
retaliation from Israel.

Something that both sides insisted from the start of the war was that
there would be no return to the status quo ante, and yet that's
pretty much what has happened. Israel's concessions are largely
largely symbolic, and can easily be reversed at any time, at the first
sign of a terrorist act in Egypt's Sinai or in the West Bank. And
Gaza can launch a new barrage of rockets at any time.

From the point of view of international geopolitics, Israel has
been the target of an enormous amount of hostility because of
the thousands of deaths in the Gaza Strip.

However, Hamas has also suffered internationally because of the rise
of the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS), and the
comparison of Hamas to ISIS. Last week, Hamas publicly beheaded
several Palestinians who were alleged to be "collaborators" with
Israel, which is exactly the kind of atrocity that ISIS has been
conducting. And Hamas is committed to wiping out Israel in the same
way that ISIS is committed to exterminating Yazidis and Christians in
Iraq.

Politically, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost
popularity as it's become clear that Israel was not meeting its
objectives in the Gaza war, and may not even have had any clear
objectives in the first place. Hamas was becoming very unpopular
before the war began, but has become much more popular as a result of
the war. They may lose those gains as soon as people realize that the
Gaza war ended, with massive losses to the people and infrastructure
of Gaza, but nothing has really changed.

Generational Dynamics predicts that the Mideast is headed for a major
war between Arabs and Jews, re-fighting the genocidal war between Jews
and Arabs that followed the 1948 partitioning of Palestine and the
creation of the state of Israel. Jerusalem Post and AP and Reuters

****
**** Egypt denies militarily intervening in Libya
****

Egypt is vehemently denying that Egypt intervened militarily in Libya.
The denial follows reports Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
were responsible for the mysterious warplanes that bombed Islamist
militias in Libya last week. According to Egypt's foreign ministry:

<QUOTE>"What is being circulated in the media regarding
military intervention in Libya are rumors. [Egypt supports]
Libyan legitimacy and the needs and training of the Libyan armed
forces."<END QUOTE>

However, this very carefully worded statement actually does not
contradict the reports, which stated that UAE warplanes bombed Libya,
while Egypt provided the airports and landing facilities that made the
bombings possible.

UAE's aggressive behavior has been a big surprise to many outside
the region. In fact, the UAE has emerged as the most
assertive of the Arab Gulf monarchies, without the reticence
of Saudi Arabia.

In some ways, the conflict in Libya is becoming a proxy war between
UAE and Qatar. In 2011, both UAE and Qatar backed militias that
opposed Muammar Gaddafi, but the two countries backed different
militias. The UAE supported the more secular militias, especially the
ones in Zintan in western Libya. Qatar, on the other hand, supported
the Islamist brigades, especially in Misrata. These militias were all
united against Gaddafi in 2011, but today they're fighting each other,
and the UAE and Qatar are respectively supporting the same ones they
supported in 2011. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and The Hindu


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, halal tourism,
Israel, Hamas, Gaza, Eli Yishai, Egypt, Yazidis, Iraq,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,
Libya, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Qatar, Zintan, Misrata

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Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis

*** 27-Aug-14 World View -- Israel and Hamas agree to 'long-term' truce in Gaza war

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Islamic 'halal' tourism surges in Turkey
• Israel and Hamas agree to 'long-term' truce in Gaza war
• Egypt denies militarily intervening in Libya

****
**** Islamic 'halal' tourism surges in Turkey
****


Adenya Islamic Hotel & Resort in Avsallar, Turkey

There are currently 75 hotels in Turkey, up from 5 in 2002,
deliberately identifying themselves as "Islamic hotels" for "halal
vacations." Demand for such hotels is soaring, and Muslims from
around the world are coming to Turkey as the most Islamic-friendly
destination in Europe.

These hotels strictly forbid alcohol and pork, and serve only halal
(Islamic) meals. Families can have meals together, but the hotels
emphasize segregation of men and women. Women have separate beaches,
separate pools, and separate prayer rooms. According to one woman,
"You don't have to worry about people taking photographs of you and
ending up on Facebook or wherever. So you can be completely relaxed."

The halal tourism sector was worth 103 billion euros in 2013,
representing around 13 percent of global travel expenditures.
Zaman (Istanbul) and BBC

****
**** Israel and Hamas agree to 'long-term' truce in Gaza war
****

There are massive celebrations on the streets of Gaza on Tuesday,
as leaders of Hamas declared "victory" over Israel in the recent
war, claiming that Israel was forced to agree to a ceasefire
since Hamas rockets could strike anywhere in Israel, and could
force Israel's airport in Tel Aviv to shut down.

A number of Israeli politicians agreed, in that Hamas has not
been demilitarized, which was supposedly Israel's major
objective in the war. According to MK Eli Yishai:

<QUOTE>"This will be time for Hamas to resupply itself with
weaponry to use against Israel. Not demilitarizing Gaza will
bring Israel to another round of fighting that will be even
worse."<END QUOTE>

The terms of the cease-fire agreement are as follows:

• A lifting of the blockade on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, opening
  border crossing and allowing goods and people to pass back and forth.
  However, the limitations on these border crossing openings were
  not discussed.
• Israel will stop targeting Hamas leaders and commanders.
• Gaza's fishermen will be able to fish in a larger zone,
  extending six miles offshore.
• Discussions of opening Gaza's airports and seaports to start in a
  month.

One commentator on BBC pointed out that anyone in Gaza can build
a rocket in his basement and launch it towards Israel, bringing
retaliation from Israel.

Something that both sides insisted from the start of the war was that
there would be no return to the status quo ante, and yet that's
pretty much what has happened. Israel's concessions are largely
largely symbolic, and can easily be reversed at any time, at the first
sign of a terrorist act in Egypt's Sinai or in the West Bank. And
Gaza can launch a new barrage of rockets at any time.

From the point of view of international geopolitics, Israel has
been the target of an enormous amount of hostility because of
the thousands of deaths in the Gaza Strip.

However, Hamas has also suffered internationally because of the rise
of the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS), and the
comparison of Hamas to ISIS. Last week, Hamas publicly beheaded
several Palestinians who were alleged to be "collaborators" with
Israel, which is exactly the kind of atrocity that ISIS has been
conducting. And Hamas is committed to wiping out Israel in the same
way that ISIS is committed to exterminating Yazidis and Christians in
Iraq.

Politically, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost
popularity as it's become clear that Israel was not meeting its
objectives in the Gaza war, and may not even have had any clear
objectives in the first place. Hamas was becoming very unpopular
before the war began, but has become much more popular as a result of
the war. They may lose those gains as soon as people realize that the
Gaza war ended, with massive losses to the people and infrastructure
of Gaza, but nothing has really changed.

Generational Dynamics predicts that the Mideast is headed for a major
war between Arabs and Jews, re-fighting the genocidal war between Jews
and Arabs that followed the 1948 partitioning of Palestine and the
creation of the state of Israel. Jerusalem Post and AP and Reuters

****
**** Egypt denies militarily intervening in Libya
****

Egypt is vehemently denying that Egypt intervened militarily in Libya.
The denial follows reports Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
were responsible for the mysterious warplanes that bombed Islamist
militias in Libya last week. According to Egypt's foreign ministry:

<QUOTE>"What is being circulated in the media regarding
military intervention in Libya are rumors. [Egypt supports]
Libyan legitimacy and the needs and training of the Libyan armed
forces."<END QUOTE>

However, this very carefully worded statement actually does not
contradict the reports, which stated that UAE warplanes bombed Libya,
while Egypt provided the airports and landing facilities that made the
bombings possible.

UAE's aggressive behavior has been a big surprise to many outside
the region. In fact, the UAE has emerged as the most
assertive of the Arab Gulf monarchies, without the reticence
of Saudi Arabia.

In some ways, the conflict in Libya is becoming a proxy war between
UAE and Qatar. In 2011, both UAE and Qatar backed militias that
opposed Muammar Gaddafi, but the two countries backed different
militias. The UAE supported the more secular militias, especially the
ones in Zintan in western Libya. Qatar, on the other hand, supported
the Islamist brigades, especially in Misrata. These militias were all
united against Gaddafi in 2011, but today they're fighting each other,
and the UAE and Qatar are respectively supporting the same ones they
supported in 2011. Al-Ahram (Cairo) and The Hindu


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Turkey, halal tourism,
Israel, Hamas, Gaza, Eli Yishai, Egypt, Yazidis, Iraq,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,
Libya, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Qatar, Zintan, Misrata

Permanent web link to this article
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Will UAE and Qatar get into an overt war? The $64K question.

I get the impression that Turkey is returning to its Islamic roots.

Originally Posted by TimWalker

I get the impression that Turkey is returning to its Islamic roots.

Or feigning it in order to win friends among countries carved from the Ottoman Empire, so the Empire can eventually be reassembled.

*** 28-Aug-14 World View -- Europe tries to deal with increasing flood of migrants from Africa

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Europe tries to deal with increasing flood of migrants from Africa
• United Nations accuses Syria of continuing use of chemical weapons
• Israel's army exchanges fire with Syria's al-Nusra front

****
**** Europe tries to deal with increasing flood of migrants from Africa
****


Migrants rescued at sea by Italy's 'Mare Nostrum' program (AP)

The number of migrants leaving Africa on unsafe smugglers' boats
hoping to reach Europe has been surging this year. This year, 110,000
people have been rescued from drowning on the unsafe trip, hoping to
reach the southern tip of Sicily. That figure is up from 42,000 in
all of 2013. Some 1900 others have died this year during the perilous
crossing. The numbers have surged this year because of the unrest in
Syria and Libya. Last weekend, an Italian navy patrol boat found 73
migrants on board a rubber dinghy, along with 18 dead bodies.

There were two tragic shipwrecks last October in which more than 400
Eritrean, Somali and Syrian migrants drowned. ( "16-Oct-13 World View -- Sicily declares state of emergency as African migrants flood in"
)

After that, Italy began spending $13 million dollars per month on a
program called "Mare Nostrum" to rescue drowning migrants trying to
reach Sicily. The Italian program has had the undesirable consequence
of motivating more migrants to risk making the trip, since they have a
good chance of being rescued by the Italians in case of mishap.

In fact, critics are complaining that Italy's rescue program is making
the problem worse. These are presumably no the same critics who, last
October, were condemning Italy for doing nothing to keep migrants from
drowning.

Italy has been demanding that the EU do more to help out, since most
of the migrants want to settle in northern Europe, not in Italy.
Unsurprisingly, northern European countries are not rushing to spend
their own money on illegal migrants, since they can just leave Italy
stuck with the entire bill, and because paying to save drowning
migrants is politically unpopular.

Still, the European Commission agreed Wednesday to expand its Frontex
border agency into a program called "Frontex Plus," which will take
some of the load from Italy. EU member states will be encouraged to
contribute planes, ships and personnel to the program, scheduled for
launch in November. Euro News and AP
and Daily Mail (London)

****
**** United Nations accuses Syria of continuing use of chemical weapons
****

A new report by the U.N. Human Rights Council's independent commission
of inquiry on Syria accuses the regime of Syria's president Bashar
al-Assad of multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity, including
the use of chemical weapons.

Both Syria's government and the opposing unnamed "non-state armed
groups," presumably referring to the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria
(IS or ISIS), or one of its predecessors, of massacres and war crimes.

However, the U.N. report singles out the al-Assad regime for the
continuing use of chemical weapons:

<QUOTE>"Government forces continued to perpetrate massacres
and conduct widespread attacks on civilians, systematically
committing murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearance
amounting to crimes against humanity. Government forces have
committed gross violations of human rights and the war crimes of
murder, hostage-taking, torture, rape and sexual violence,
recruiting and using children in hostilities and targeting
civilians.

Government forces disregarded the special protection accorded to
hospitals and medical and humanitarian personnel. Indiscriminate
and disproportionate aerial bombardment and shelling led to mass
civilian casualties and spread terror. Government forces used
chlorine gas, an illegal weapon. ...

116. Witnesses saw helicopters drop barrel bombs an d smelled a
scent akin to domestic chlorine immediately following
impact. Accounts of victims, and of medical personnel involved in
administering treatment, provide descriptions of symptoms
compatible with exposure to chemical agents, namely vomiting, eye
a nd skin irritation, choking and other respiratory problems.

117. Chlorine gas is a chemical weapon as defined in the
Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production,
Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction,
of 1992. The use of chemical weapons is prohibited in all
circumstances under customary international humanitarian law and
is a w ar crime under the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court."<END QUOTE>

As we've pointed out in the past, the policy of Russia's president
Vladimir Putin to continue to provide masses of heavy weapons for the
al-Assad regime to use against innocent civilians makes Vladimir Putin
a war criminal as well.

Bashar al-Assad is a genocidal monster, the Adolf Hitler of the
present day, though on a smaller scale. Al-Assad's actions, starting
in 2011 against innocent protesters, including women and children, has
turned Syria into a global "jihadist magnet," and has led to the
creation of ISIS. If ISIS is now a danger to the al-Assad regime,
then al-Assad has no one to blame but himself, although the
rest of us have to suffer as well.

Nonetheless, with the U.S. now planning to target ISIS in Syria,
al-Assad is now our good buddy and ally of the United States, in the
fight against ISIS. U.N. report and Full Report PDF

****
**** Israel's army exchanges fire with Syria's al-Nusra front
****

Forces from the al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Nusra Front)
militias in southern Syria apparently overran Syrian regime forces and
took control of the town of Quneitra, on the border with the Golan
Heights, as well as the Quneitra border crossing into Israel. Mortar
shells, apparently fired by al-Nusra, landed in Israeli territory,
wounding one Israeli and damaging several vehicles.

Al-Nusra began as a rebel militia fighting against the Syrian regime
of Bashar al-Assad, and later joined al-Qaeda. It's frequently fought
against ISIS to gain territory, as often as it's fought the al-Assad
regime. What appears to be happening is that the al-Nusra is gaining
ground in southeastern Syria, defeating both ISIS and the Syrian
regime.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) responded to the cross-border fire
with artillery fire of its own. However, Israel has no intention to
get involved in fighting over Quneitra, according to Yaakov Amidror,
former head of Israelis National Security Council. According to
Amidror, Israel will not get involved unless one of three red lines is
crossed:

• Firing across the border into Israel's Golan Heights,
• The transfer of strategic weapons to Hezbollah,
• The proliferation of chemical arms.

According to Amidror, "From our point of view there is a very clear
red line, and this is the border. We should not interfere on the other
side of the border to save [either] one of the two sides." Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Europe, Africa, Sicily, Libya,
Mare Nostrum, Frontex Plus, Syria, Bashar al-Assad
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,
Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front, UN Human Rights Council,
Russia, Vladimir Putin, Quneitra, Golan Heights, Israel,
Yaakov Amidror

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*** 29-Aug-14 World View -- Russia widens its invasion of Ukraine

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Russia widens its invasion of Ukraine
• Canada's Nato delegation provides geography lesson to Russia
• Sister of Boston Marathon bomber arrested for bomb threat

****
**** Russia widens its invasion of Ukraine
****


Nato satellite imagery showing Russian military convoy well inside Ukraine territory

Troops, tanks and weapons from Russia's army are pouring into Ukraine
in support of anti-government militias in a new war front in the
country's southeast. The initial Russian invasion conquered and
annexed the peninsula of Crimea, which is insulated and extends south
into the Black Sea. The annexation of Crimea has caused Russia
economic problems, because there's no easy way to send supplies to
Crimea. The apparent purpose of the new war front is apparently to
annex addition Ukrainian sovereign territory in order to have control
of a land bridge from Russia to Crimea. Having gone through many
months of lies and evasions by Russian politicians and trolls, we can
assume it's unlikely that Russia stop there.

Ukrainian anti-government militia leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko admits
that there are 3-4,000 Russian citizens, including many soldiers, that
have joined his militias in Ukraine. However, it's OK because they're
"volunteers," according to Zakharchenko "There is no secret that among
the volunteers from Russia there are many military men. They are
fighting together with us because they understand that it’s their
duty."

This is kind of nonsense that we're hearing from the Russian
politicians, diplomats and trolls. It's as if a few thousand American
soldiers drove columns of tanks and armored vehicles 50 miles south
into Mexico and started killing people, but the Pentagon said, "It's
OK. We didn't send them -- they're just volunteers."

According to Nato's Brigadier General Niko Tak:

<QUOTE>"Over the past two weeks we have noted a significant
escalation in both the level and sophistication of Russia's
military interference in Ukraine. The satellite images released
today provide additional evidence that Russian combat soldiers,
equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, are operating inside
Ukraine's sovereign territory.

These latest images provide concrete examples of Russian activity
inside Ukraine, but are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of
the overall scope of Russian troop and weapons movements.

We have also detected large quantities of advanced weapons,
including air defense systems, artillery, tanks, and armored
personnel carriers being transferred to separatist forces in
Eastern Ukraine. The presence of these weapons along with
substantial numbers of Russian combat troops inside Ukraine make
the situation increasingly grave."<END QUOTE>

Ukraine's government is calling it a "full-scale invasion," but Nato
and the U.S. are calling it an "incursion," since calling it an
"invasion" would imply a state of war.

In a press conference, President Barack Obama said:

<QUOTE>"I just spoke with Chancellor Merkel of Germany on the
situation in Ukraine. We agree, if there was ever any doubt, that
Russia is responsible for the violence in eastern Ukraine. The
violence is encouraged by Russia. The separatists are trained by
Russia. They are armed by Russia. They are funded by Russia.

Russia has deliberately and repeatedly violated the sovereignty
and territorial integrity of Ukraine. And the new images of
Russian forces inside Ukraine make that plain for the world to
see. ...

I consider the actions that we've seen in the last week a
continuation of what's been taking place for months now. As I said
in my opening statement, there is no doubt that this is not a
homegrown, indigenous uprising in eastern Ukraine. The separatists
are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia.

Throughout this process, we've seen deep Russian involvement in
everything that they've done. I think in part because of the
progress that you had seen by the Ukrainians around Donetsk and
Luhansk, Russia determined that it had to be a little more overt
in what it had already been doing, but it's not really a
shift."<END QUOTE>

BBC and
Russia Today and Nato and
Washington Post

****
**** Canada's Nato delegation provides geography lesson to Russia
****


Canada's map of Russia and Ukraine for the Russians, because geography can be tough.

Ukraine's security service arrested 10 Russian soldiers who had
crossed the border and were about 20 miles into Ukraine. Russian
politicians, trolls and diplomats have been claiming that the Russian
soldiers had crossed the border into Ukraine "by accident."

Canada's Nato delegation felt bad for the Russians, and wanted to help
them out, as kind of an educational thing. To help the Russians, they
tweeted:

<QUOTE>"Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian
soldiers who keep getting lost & 'accidentally'
entering."<END QUOTE>

and provided the helpful map shown above. Business Insider

****
**** Sister of Boston Marathon bomber arrested for bomb threat
****

The sister of 2013 Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev was arrested in New York City on Wednesday, for threatening
to blow up her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. Ailina Tsarnaeva alleged
phoned the ex-girlfriend and said, "Leave us alone. I know people who
can put a bomb on you." The ex-girlfriend called police.

Nothing about ideology here. Just female hormones. New York Post


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Russia, Ukraine, Crimea, Nato,
Aleksandr Zakharchenko, Niko Tak, Ailina Tsarnaeva

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-sigh-

Another press conference, means more lies passed along uncritically.

Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis

Troops, tanks and weapons from Russia's army are pouring into Ukraine
in support of anti-government militias in a new war front in the
country's southeast.

"Confirmed liar puts up another round of pictures without context and expects that people will believe his latest load of bullshit-"analysis" of them. He is justified in doing so because people uncritically believed all his many previous loads of bullshit-analysis. It's a successful formula.

The initial Russian invasion conquered and
annexed the peninsula of Crimea

Simple repetition of a lie. No invasion. Annexation following (and as indicated by) referendum.

Ukrainian anti-government militia leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko admits
that there are 3-4,000 Russian citizens, including many soldiers, that
have joined his militias in Ukraine. However, it's OK because they're
"volunteers," according to Zakharchenko "There is no secret that among
the volunteers from Russia there are many military men. They are
fighting together with us because they understand that it’s their
duty."

Hardly surprising, really. And it has quite a long history of happening. Consider Papa Hemingway's adventure as just one of the myriad examples. If the presence of foreigners among the ranks of fighters were at all indicative of those foreigners' governments being in a state of war, then Poland, Canada, Sweden, and the USA (to pick three easy examples) would be at war with the DNR/LNR (as well as at war with Spain).

Is Canada de facto at war with Spain?

The satellite images released today provide additional evidence that Russian combat soldiers, equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, are operating inside Ukraine's sovereign territory.

Another lie. The photos (assuming they are real) show Russian-type hardware in Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine uses the exact same hardware, and for the last two weeks, the Ukrainian army has been forced to surrender hundreds of units of their hardware as the several pre-Independence-Day pushes towards and around Luhansk, and Donetsk got encircled and wiped out. "Trophy" captured equipment abounds -- only a very little of which was paraded through Donetsk last weekend. Whose equipment is in the pictures? No effort is made to show. Who is using it? No effort is made to show. Where did it come from? No effort is made to show.

To be sure, Russia is and has been sending arms to augment what the separatists have managed to find or capture. If nothing else, it slightly offsets the planeload upon planeload of the same that is being delivered to Kiev by NATO. But unless you're going to declare that NATO is at war in Ukraine, you can't use the exact same behaviors to declare that Russia is at war in Ukraine.

Canada's Nato delegation provides geography lesson to Russia

Not a lie here, just abject ignorance.I assume this is the kind of "map" that showed you that Ukraine and Kazakhstan both have the same border with Russia? Even setting aside Crimea, the map is grossly inaccurate. As even the slightest familiarity with Europe or with a map would make clear. But par for the course for the kind of inaccurate, incorrect, and flat-out-untrue stuff that you continue to unthinkingly regurgitate here.

Originally Posted by Justin '77

-sigh-
Another press conference, means more lies passed along uncritically.

Nato has exhibited a great deal of evidence. BBC, al-Jazeera, CNN,
the NY Times and others all have reporters on the ground in eastern
Ukraine verifying what's going on, and validating the Nato evidence.
You should be ashamed of yourself for the crap you're posting. I hope
you're at least making some money for your sellout.

Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis

Nato has exhibited a great deal of evidence.

Not that they're showing people. So what you actually have is that NATO says they have a great deal of evidence. Just like every other time they've lied.

BBC, al-Jazeera, CNN, the NY Times and others all have reporters on the ground in eastern
Ukraine verifying what's going on, and validating the Nato evidence.

Even a solitary link to that actually happening would be a fundamental qualitative improvement over simply asserting it. So far, it's all of the latter from you and yours, and none of the former.

You should be ashamed of yourself for the crap you're posting. I hope
you're at least making some money for your sellout.

Ad hominem is a fallacy. You seem to have mistaken it for an argument.

Originally Posted by Justin '77

> Not that they're showing people. So what you actually have
> is that NATO says they have a great deal of evidence. Just
> like every other time they've lied.

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_112103.htm

Originally Posted by Justin '77

> Even a solitary link to that actually happening would be a
> fundamental qualitative improvement over simply asserting it. So
> far, it's all of the latter from you and yours, and none of the
> former. Ad hominem is a fallacy. You seem to have
> mistaken it for an argument.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0GS20H20140828

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...s-short-border

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...t-on-vacation/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28961080

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28968526


http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-invasion.html

http://en.ria.ru/world/20140829/1924...rs--Putin.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/wo...=top-news&_r=1

http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...iggest-mistake

Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_112103.htm

Indeed. Pictures [possibly] showing one thing, plus a whole-cloth narrative asserting that they actually show something else. The pictures show Russian-type vehicles. Which, in addition to Russia, Ukraine also has and uses. Plus which Ukraine has lost to the DNR/LNR forces initially when they seized armories upon declaring opposition to the Kiev regime, and then more recently as seized in the several liquidations of encircled Ukrainian troops that have been happening there over the last month or so.

So what NATO shows is certain types of equipment in some certain places. What it claims is that the equipment shown is being used by certain specific parties and not specific other parties. The former has never been in the slightest doubt -- again, DNR and LNR mouthpieces have been crowing about seized hardware pretty openly and have over quite a long time put out hundreds of pieces of video and photographic evidence backing up their claims. The latter, however, is what NATO is claiming, you are regurgitating, and nobody has even the slightest bit of evidence to support.

As to the second, John said, "BBC, al-Jazeera, CNN, the NY Times and others all have reporters on the ground in eastern Ukraine verifying what's going on, and validating the Nato evidence."
Let's see how well the links he provided support this claim.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0GS20H20140828

Quoting the opinion of activists thousands of miles outside the Eastern Ukraine. Does not support John's assertion.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...s-short-border

Guardian reporters in Russia. Not Eastern Ukraine. And by their own admission, unsure what they were seeing or where they were when they saw it. Does not support John's assertion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/28/russians-troops-fighting-in-ukraine-naw-just-on-vacation/

A reporter in Washington DC repeating things he has heard other people say. Does not support John's assertion.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28961080

A reporter in London, relaying what another person in London told him about some video he had seen. Does not support John's assertion.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28968526

A reporter in Kostroma (Russia; not near Ukraine) writes about things people are saying in Russia. He refers to stringers working in Pskov (also not near Ukraine). Does not support John's assertion.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-invasion.html

A writer from Moscow, interviewing people in Moscow. Does not support John's assertion.

http://en.ria.ru/world/20140829/1924...rs--Putin.html

A reporter in Tver, Russia (not near Ukraine), relaying a press release from Putin following his meeting in Misnk (Belorus; also not in Ukraine). Does not support Johns assertion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/wo...=top-news&_r=1

Writers in Minsk (see above) writing concerning the meeting there and things people at the meeting said. Does not support John's assertion.

So... John says that, "BBC, al-Jazeera, CNN, the NY Times and others all have reporters on the ground in eastern Ukraine verifying what's going on, and validating the Nato evidence.". Tasked to support this dubious claim, he presents exactly no examples at all of reporters on the ground in eastern Ukraine, much less of such fictional persons validating NATO's latest lies.

One is left feeling quite comfortable indeed with the initial supposition that NATO is just blowing smoke and has no actual evidence of its claims at all. Certainly, there's none out where anybody could get to it.

No, Justin, those stories are not all the same, just because you say
they are. There's plenty of evidence in those articles, but it
doesn't make any difference. In one article, Putin himself even
admitted that there were Russian soldiers in Ukraine. That admission
proves that there are Russian troops in Ukraine.

In another, two different reporters saw Russian tanks cross into
Ukraine. Another Russian leader admitted that there were thousands of
Russian soldiers in Ukraine. That admission alone is evidence of a
Russian invasion. Thousands of soldiers is an invasion.

So you're the one who's lying, Justin. As for CNN, BBC, etc., I've
seen their onsite reports on tv in the past, but I can't find any
current print stories. However, the Guardian and Telegraph reporters
saw the Russian tanks just a few days ago.

But all of these media sources are lying because Justin says they are,
and all the paid Russian trolls are right, because they just say that
evidence is all photoshopped. Everyone's photoshopping evidence
because everyone wants to embarrass poor Vladimir Putin. It's a
worldwide conspiracy.

But as I say, it doesn't make any difference. No matter how much
evidence is presented, Putin's army of paid trolls just say it's all
made up or photoshopped. We live in a world where evidence doesn't
matter, and the only thing that matters is what the trolls say.
That's emblematic of the reasons why we're headed for World War III in
this generational Crisis era.

I always thought that China would start the World War, but between
Ukraine and Syria, it now looks like Putin will be at fault. He's
going to keep crossing red lines as long as he keeps getting away with
it, as along as he can pay Russian trolls like you to flood the social
media with nonsense. Sooner or later, he's going to trigger a Crisis
War Regeneracy, and then a war will start. And you can be proud of
yourself for playing a part in launching it.

As for myself, I'll continue to assume that the BBC and other global
media sources are telling the truth, and that you're the one who's
lying.

** 15-Aug-14 World View -- Russia threatens to invade Ukraine from East and West
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/...15.htm#e140815

Hey Justin, why didn't you just quote Lavrov, who says that
the Nato took the photos from a video game?

That's the quality of honesty that we get from Russian diplomats,
politicians and trolls.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/08...s-lavrov-says/

*** 30-Aug-14 World View -- Al-Shabaab wants jihadists from UK, Germany and Minnesota

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• UK raises terror threat level, citing British citizen terrorists
• Al-Shabaab wants jihadists from UK, Germany and Minnesota

****
**** UK raises terror threat level, citing British citizen terrorists
****


Aftermath of 3-day Sept 2013 al-Shabaab terror attack on Westgate Mall, Nairobi, Kenya. Two of the terrorists were from the Somali community in Minneapolis

Saying that approximate 500 British citizens have traveled to fight in
Syria, 200 of which have already returned home, Britain's prime
minister David Cameron announced that the UK was increasing its terror
threat level to "severe," meaning that a terror attack is "highly
likely," but not necessarily imminent.

The announcement may have been triggered by a recent online video that
depicted the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley.
The video was posted by the Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria (IS or
ISIS), and the person carrying out the gruesome beheading is a
jihadist speaking with a British accent. Cameron said Britons were
"shocked and sickened" by the idea that Foley may have been killed by
someone who is British. LA Times and Daily Mail (London)

****
**** Al-Shabaab wants jihadists from UK, Germany and Minnesota
****

In a recent video posted by the al-Qaeda linked Somali terrorist
group al-Shabaab, and English speaker asks Muslims living in the
West to give up their comfortable lives and join the jihad:

<QUOTE>"Those who are living in the U.S., especially
Minnesota, Great Britain, Germany, and many parts of the kufr
[unbelief] world – you have a decision to make today. This
decision [is] a decision that makes you successful in this dunya
[life] and the hereafter, a decision that will have a great effect
on your children and your grandchildren. This decision is hijra
[emigration] fi sabilillah [for Allah's sake] to the lands of
Muslims, such as Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many places in
the Muslim world.

If you chose to not make this decision and not answer the call of
Allah, know that there is clear evidence against you in the Day of
Judgment, in the court of Allah the Exalted. For what are you
still living in dar al-kufr [abode of unbelief] for? Is it the
schools, the jobs, and the nice settlements you have? ... Know that
this was only temporary and the hereafter is internal
[sic. eternal]. So save your own souls from the great punishment
of Allah the Exalted and make hijra fi sabilillah."<END QUOTE>

The al-Shabaab video was probably triggered by the announcement of the
death of an American named Douglas McArthur McCain in Syria, while
fighting for ISIS. He was one of a number of jihadists who were
recruited from Minnesota, which has the country's largest community of
Somalis. The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis is sometimes
called "Little Mogadishu."

The first wave of Somali refugees came to America in 1991 and were
relocated to Minneapolis, where there was a need for workers. The
refugees were so successful that their relatives soon followed, and
today there are 40-80 thousand Somalis living in the region, including
many that were born there and are American citizens.

Al-Shabaab received increased international attention and prominence
last year as a result of the horrific three-day terror attack on the
Westlake Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. It's recognized that the attack was
extremely well-planned and executed, indicating a degree of high
sophistication that was previously not recognized in al-Shabaab.
Furthermore, two of the Westlake Mall terrorists were American
citizens, from "Little Mogadishu" in Minneapolis. (See "23-Sep-13 World View -- Minnesota link to Kenya shopping mall attack raises U.S. fears"
) A
number of Somalis are known to have gone to Somalia for terrorist
training, and returned to the United States, where they can enter
freely because they're American citizens. As a precaution, the Mall
of America in Minnesota, the largest Mall in the United States,
capable of holding almost 10,000 people, has been holding "lockdown
drills" since 2009. Memri and CBS News


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Britain, David Cameron, James Foley,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL,
Somalia, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Little Mogadishu,
Westgate Mall, Nairobi, Kenya, Mall of America

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Whereas John lies about the utter absence of evidence to support the false claims he is regurgitating (and whose purveyers he continues to insist -- in direct opposition to ream upon ream of actual existing evidence -- are somehow in the slightest bit credibile), actual evidence is being generated by actual reporters actually in the areas about which his false claims are being made.

Of course, those reporters actually in the place about which they are talking, actually engaging in fact-seeking, are finding out that (big surprise) those proven liars John wants us all to assume are trustworthy are in fact... lying.

CNN International in Novoazovsk, take it away...



(Got to love that initial tagline... "Ukrainian military leader's remarks don't match situation found by CNN". Big fucking surprise, eh? The liar's claims don't match up with reality? Who'd have thunk?)

Originally Posted by Justin '77

> Whereas John lies about the utter absence of evidence to support
> the false claims he is regurgitating (and whose purveyers he
> continues to insist -- in direct opposition to ream upon ream of
> actual existing evidence -- are somehow in the slightest bit
> credibile), actual evidence is being generated by actual reporters
> actually in the areas about which his false claims are being made.

> Of course, those reporters actually in the place about which they
> are talking, actually engaging in fact-seeking, are finding out
> that (big surprise) those proven liars John wants us all to assume
> are trustworthy are in fact... lying.

> CNN International in Novoazovsk, take it away...

>

> (Got to love that initial tagline... "Ukrainian military leader's
> remarks don't match situation found by CNN". Big fucking surprise,
> eh? The liar's claims don't match up with reality? Who'd have
> thunk?)

What the hell are you talking about? CNN is reporting Russian
roadblocks just outside of Novoazovsk, and Ukraine's army is building
fortifications east of Mariupol, preparing for an assault by Russian
forces.

> Back on the ground in eastern Ukraine, the CNN team encountered
> the first pro-Russian rebel roadblock a short distance outside
> Novoazovsk, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Russian
> border, with concrete blocks across the road and a heavy machine
> gun among the weaponry.

> A 12.7 mm heavy machine gun was among the weapons at the
> roadblock. The fighters would not allow the CNN team to pass
> through but said they should "come back tomorrow."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/30/world/...kraine-crisis/

This is a settled matter. The Russians have already admitted that
there are thousands of Russian soldiers fighting in East Ukraine.
That's an invasion, and they're preparing to launch an invasion on
Mariupol. You are so full of crap.

Soon the invasion of Ukraine will be fait accompli.

That's a really weird video. The accompanying text is in Vietnamese.
The video was posted today, but there are no days or dates mentioned
in the audio or displayed in the video. It may be a pirated video
several days old.

Originally Posted by TimWalker

Soon the invasion of Ukraine will be fait accompli.

It's beginning to look that way -- at least southern Ukraine, all the way
across to Odessa and Moldova.

Originally Posted by John J. Xenakis

What the hell are you talking about? CNN is reporting Russian
roadblocks just outside of Novoazovsk, and Ukraine's army is building
fortifications east of Mariupol, preparing for an assault by Russian
forces.

Just can't stop lying, eh?
The article you linked identifies the roadblock as "Pro-Russian". That is, the separatists. And the line about expecting a Russian invasion is explicitly credited as coming from the very same person that CNN's actual reporter there discredited in the video clip I posted (but which you obviously didn't watch).

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/30/world/...kraine-crisis/

This is a settled matter. The Russians have already admitted that
there are thousands of Russian soldiers fighting in East Ukraine.

A lie. They have stated -- actually dating back several months when they began to say it -- that there were Russian citizens who had gone to volunteer to fight for the Donbass militias. Your lie is that they are doing so on behalf of the Russian army or Russian government.

That's an invasion...

Maybe you've forgotten what a Russian invasion looks like? No surprise; the last one was like six years ago, and they left pretty much right away after they had finished disarming their opponent.
If Russia had invaded Ukraine last Thursday, you would know by the Russian tanks sitting in Kiev on Saturday.

*** 31-Aug-14 World View -- Coup possible in Pakistan after night of violence

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Hong Kong threatened with riots as China reneges on democracy
• Coup possible in Pakistan after night of violence
• Russian troops threaten Ukraine's entire coastline
• Colleges preparing to screen incoming students for Ebola

****
**** Hong Kong threatened with riots as China reneges on democracy
****


On 1 July tens of thousands marched against candidate restrictions in the territory. Tens of thousands held pro-Beijing rallies on August 17. (AP)

Tens of thousands of activists in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement
are threatening an "Occupy Central" civil disobedience protest on
Sunday. Threatened actions could include a boycott of university
classes, wildcat street protests, strikes and a mass refusal to pay
taxes.

They are objecting to China's apparent reneging on the 1997 agreement
under which Hong Kong as a British colony reverted to Chinese control.
The deal was known as "one country, two systems," meaning that Beijing
would pursue Communism and Socialism, while Hong Kong would retain its
democracy, its capitalist system, and its way of life. According to
the agreement, this policy would be in effect for 50 years, until
2047.

However, now China is demanding that the schedule 2017 elections be
tightly controlled. They will be "free" elections, but the only
candidates who will be permitted to be run have to be approved a
"nominating committee" completely controlled by Beijing. The
city's population is split between the pro and anti-Beijing
protesters, which could result in violence. Thousands of
police are expected to be on hand on Sunday.

China says that it has "comprehensive jurisdiction" over Hong Kong,
and that any attempt to implement "international standards" of
democracy would only cause economic and social chaos, without bringing
any benefit to the interests of the Hong Kong people. Reuters and BBC and Xinhua (Beijing)

****
**** Coup possible in Pakistan after night of violence
****

Hundreds of people were injured in Islamabad on Saturday, as tens of
thousands of supporters of political opposition leaders Imran Khan and
cleric Tahirul Qadri continued the protest that began several weeks
ago. ( "20-Aug-14 World View -- Pakistan's army called to quell massive anti-government protest"
)

The protesters began by storming Pakistan's parliament building, and
then changed directions towards the house of prime minister Nawaz
Sharif. At tis point, the police turned against the protesters, with
the result of the worst violence in Pakistan's 67 year history.

It's suspected, though not proven, that army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif
is supporting the demonstrations. The army chief has publicly taken a
central role in the political crisis by offering to mediate, and the
army chief is known to be furious at the prime minister for the
latter's prosecution of former prime minister Pervez Musharraf for
"high treason." Musharaff was an army general who became prime
minister in 1999 by means of a coup that deposed and exiled the
current prime minister Nawaz Sharif. After Musharaff stepped down,
Sharif became prime minister again and imprisoned Musharaff, who is
still under house arrest.

Saturday's riots raise concerns that Nawaz Sharif will now be forced
to step down again, and the army will once again be in control of
Pakistan's government, in what would essentially be an army coup.
BBC and
Dawn (Pakistan) and Guardian (London) and BBC

****
**** Russian troops threaten Ukraine's entire coastline
****


Ukraine - thousands of Russian troops have crossed the border and appear poised for an attack on the port city of Mariupol. It's feared that Russian troops will join with troops already in Crimea, continue all the way to Odessa, and connect with separatist Moldovans in Transnistria in eastern Moldova

Ukraine's army is bracing itself for an assault by Russian forces on
the coastal port city of Mariupol. Russian separatist forces in
Ukraine, bolstered by an invasion of thousands of Russian soldiers
that have crossed the border from Russia, are established about
halfway between Mariupol and the Russian border. Ukrainian
forces are are reinforcing checkpoints and digging trenches
in anticipation of an attack.

With thousands of Russian troops already taking part, European leaders
are warning about an escalation. Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko
calls it a "full-scale invasion."

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite said, "Russia is at war
against Ukraine and that is against a country which wants to be part
of Europe. Russia is practically in war against Europe." European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says that the situation "has
worsened considerably," and added:

<QUOTE>"We may see a situation where we reach the point of no
return. If the escalation of the conflict continues, this point
of no return can come."<END QUOTE>

However, Russia's president Vladimir Putin appeared to be mocking and
threatening Europe with these comments on Friday when he said:

<QUOTE>"Russia is far from being involved in any large-scale
conflicts. We don't want that and don't plan on it. But
naturally, we should always be ready to repel any aggression
towards Russia.

Russia's partners ... should understand it's best not to mess with
us. Thank God, I think no one is thinking of unleashing a
large-scale conflict with Russia. I want to remind you that Russia
is one of the leading nuclear powers."<END QUOTE>

Putin's message is simple: Russian forces have already attacked and
annexed Crimea, Russian forces are preparing to launch an attack on
Mariupol, and Russian forces will continue to whatever he wants them
to do, and no one will stop them.

Barroso's comment about a "point of no return" is quite real. Putin
is crossing one red line after another, and keeps getting away with
it. But if he keeps doing that, then at some point he's going trigger
what in generational theory is called a "regeneracy," a kind of panic
that causes the population to put politics aside and unite, usually
behind a military leader. A financial panic is similar. The panic is
triggered because of a sudden fear that the society or its way of life
is facing an existential threat that must be conquered.

This kind of panic could not have happened during the 1980s or 1990s,
because survivors of World War II were still running the world, and
when survivors of the previous generational crisis war are still in
charge, then the society is resilient to this panic. But as the WW II
survivors disappear, the society becomes less resilient, and the right
kind of event can trigger a panic and a war. That will be the "point
of no return" that Barroso is referring to.

I used to think that it would be China or the Mideast that would
trigger the next world war. But as Putin crosses one red line after
another in Ukraine and Syria as the world goes deeper into a
generational Crisis era, it may well be that Putin is the one that
history will blame for starting World War III. CNN and
BBC and
Reuters

****
**** Colleges preparing to screen incoming students for Ebola
****

Thousands of college students from West Africa, especially the
countries of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, where the
Ebola pandemic is out of control in some areas, may be subjected to
screening for Ebola when they arrive at their colleges in the next
couple of weeks. The odds any arriving students having Ebola, or of
infecting anyone else, are almost nonexistent, but the screening
process is considered a necessary precaution. "Parents are comforted
to know that there is a screening process, that we are alert for it,
that we are prepared for it," according to one college official.
AP and Boston Public Health Commission (PDF)


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, China, Hong Kong, Occupy Central,
Pakistan, Imran Khan, Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri,
Gen. Raheel Sharif, Pervez Musharraf,
Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Mariupol, Odessa,
Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, Jose Manuel Barroso,
Vladimir Putin, West Africa

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