Zio-Watch News Round-up

‘We have proof’ Turkey backs ISIS & other terrorists – Kurdish commander: Zio-Watch, February 17, 2016

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From Russia Today

‘We have proof’ Turkey backs ISIS & other terrorists – Kurdish commander

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 18:48

Murat Karayilan, acting military commander of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). © Azad Lashkari Murat Karayilan, acting military commander of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). © Azad Lashkari / Reuters

Turkey favors Syrian jihadist groups that emerged from Al-Qaeda, a top Kurdish commander has told Russian media. He claims that Ankara, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been furnishing extremists with weapons and munitions.

The support the terrorist groups have been given by Turkey is confirmed by documentary evidence, Murat Karayılan, co-founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), told RIA Novosti.

Karayılan has been the acting leader of the PKK, a group considered terrorists by Turkey and the US, since its original leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in 1999.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has an “ideological inter-relationship” and joint interests with the radical Islamists, Karayılan said in an interview to RIA given in the Qandil Mountains, an area in Iraqi Kurdistan, next to the Iraq–Iran border.
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From Russia Today

West has no chance of stopping refugee influx – Turkish President Erdogan

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 21:31

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan © Adem Altan Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan © Adem Altan / Reuters

Western countries have no chance of stopping the influx of refugees from Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He also pledged to continue shelling Syrian Kurds and criticized the West for supporting Kurdish organizations.
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From Russia Today

Solution to refugee crisis lies in ‘destroying terrorism’ – Putin after talks with Orban

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 13:27

February 17, 2016. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo residence in the Moscow Region. © Aleksey Nikolskyi February 17, 2016. Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo residence in the Moscow Region. © Aleksey Nikolskyi / Sputnik

The solution to the refugee crisis lies in the political settlement of conflicts, particularly in Syria and Libya, President Vladimir Putin said following a meeting with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban. He added that the two share views on the migrant and refugee issue.

Putin was meeting with Orban at his residence outside Moscow.

They discussed a range of issues including the EU refugee crisis and the role of terrorism in causing it. Putin told media after the meeting that the “number one goal” is to eradicate terrorism.

“The reason for the current refugee issue is the destabilization of states in entire world regions – Northern Africa, Afghanistan and other countries. In order to solve the refugee issue the prime cause should be eliminated. The countries’ statehood, economy and social sphere must be restored so that people can live in their own country or return there,” he said.
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From Russia Today

‘5 horrible years’: Libya marks 5th anniversary of Western-backed uprising to oust Gaddafi

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 12:59

© Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

Libya’s Western-backed popular uprising officially began on February 17, 2011, resulting in the toppling of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. Since then, the oil-rich nation has been plunged into political chaos amid the growing threat of Islamic State.

The uprising proved to be a pre-cursor to NATO-led intervention in Libya, which would eventually result in the brutal killing of Gaddafi.

The outpouring of adulation and messages of support to the opposition forces from Western world leaders spoke of a ‘bright’ new dawn for Libya after Gaddafi’s toppling.

“People in Britain salute your courage, and while we are proud of the role we played to help, we know this was your revolution from your bravery from people in Benghazi, from people in Tripoli … You showed the world you would get rid of a dictator and choose freedom,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said during a 2011 visit to Benghazi.

However, five years on from the start of the uprising, Libya is in a markedly worse position. Its oil revenues have halved, while it is also facing a growing threat from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), which is looking to capitalize on the lack of political stability and political infighting.

Ahmed Gaddaf Al-Dam, Gaddafi’s cousin, spoke to RT and said that Libya had witnessed “five horrible years” as a result of “NATO’s actions.”
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From Russia Today

Turkey wants ‘secure line’ created 10km inside Syria, including Azaz – deputy PM

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 08:57

© Umit Bektas © Umit Bektas / Reuters

Turkey wants to create a secure zone 10km within Syria, which would include the town of Azaz, Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan stated, as cited by Reuters. The move comes after Ankara’s shelling of Syrian Kurds for four successive days.

“What we want is to create a secure strip, including Azaz, 10km deep inside Syria and this zone should be free from clashes,” Akdogan said in an interview on Turkey’s AHaber television station, Reuters reports.

However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan mentioned on Wednesday that Ankara does not intend to stop shelling Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. He also called on the US to choose whether it wanted to back Turkey or the Syrian Kurds.

Turkey has shelled Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria for four consecutive days as Ankara tries to stop the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Units) from claiming the town of Azaz, just 8km from the Turkish border.
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From The Times of Israel

Report: Israeli missiles hit Syrian army outpost near Damascus

Syrian military source denies strikes; no immediate reports on casualties or nature of targets

February 18, 2016, 12:01 am

Illustrative: An IDF UAV landing in an airfield on the Golan Heights, January 20, 2015. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Illustrative: An IDF UAV landing in an airfield on the Golan Heights, January 20, 2015. (Jack Guez/AFP)

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday said three Israeli rockets hit Syrian army positions near Damascus, according to Reuters.

A pro-Syrian government military source denied the report, Reuters added.

There was no immediate report of casualties, or of the likely target of such an attack.

In late December, Hezbollah-allied terrorist Samir Kuntar was killed in an explosion in his Damascus home which was attributed to Israel. Kuntar’s death was followed within hours by rocket strikes from Lebanon on the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.

Days after Kuntar’s assassination, Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in the Qalamoun area of Syria in a series of at least seven airstrikes, Syrian media outlets reported at the time. The IDF declined to comment on the alleged airstrikes.
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From The Times of Israel

Khamenei blames Zionist ‘network’ for US and EU policy

In new critical assault, Iranian supreme leader says ‘Death to America’ slogans are inevitable Iranian response to American ‘open hostility’

February 17, 2016, 8:07 pm

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the country's diplomats in Tehran. November 1, 2015 (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the country’s diplomats in Tehran. November 1, 2015 (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)

Escalating his rhetoric against the United States and Israel, Iran’s supreme leader claimed Wednesday that a Zionist “network” dominates US and EU policy, and that Iranian slogans of “Death to America” are a natural response to US “hostility,” an Iranian news site reported.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “said the global Zionism network dictates the US and many EU members’ policies vis-a-vis Iran,” the Fars news agency said.

It quoted him telling a large audience “from East Azerbaijan province” in Tehran on Wednesday that “the US and many European governments’ policies are dominated by this (Zionist) network, and the Americans’ dealing with Iran’s nuclear issue should be understood within this particular framework.”

Khamenei complained that an unnamed US official recently vowed to take “action to dissuade foreign investments in Iran,” and protested that “this demonstrates the depths of the US hostility toward the Iranian nation.”

US politicians object why our people chant “death to US”? With current & past history of your behavior what do you expect our people say?!

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From PressTV

Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:26PM

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree pardoning all army deserters and other military-related crimes.  

The decree grants amnesty to soldiers inside and outside of Syria as long as their crimes took place before February 17, 2016, and will not be applicable to those who were currently under investigation or have escaped arrest, the official SANA news agency reported on Wednesday.

The soldiers will be granted absolution on condition that they turn themselves in to authorities for investigations. Those currently residing outside Syria have two months to present themselves and those inside the country have one month.

Last year, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that some 70,000 men had avoided being drafted in to the military since the beginning of the conflict in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a new report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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From PressTV

Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:50PM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed revenge against those responsible for the Ankara deadly blast that claimed the lives of at least 28 people.

“Our determination to respond in kind to attacks taking place inside and outside our borders is getting stronger with such acts,” Erdogan said in a statement issued after the blast on Wednesday.

He added that his country will not “shy away from using its right to self-defense” when in danger.

“We will continue our fight against the pawns that carry out such attacks, which know no moral or humanitarian bounds, and the forces behind them with more determination every day,” he added.

Erdogan also canceled a scheduled visit to the Azerbaijani capital Baku following the deadly attack in the Turkish capital which also injured at least 61 other people.

A scheduled Thursday EU mini-summit on the refugee crisis between Turkey and 11 EU countries was also canceled after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu scrapped plans for a Brussels visit.
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From PressTV

Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:14PM

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Wednesday that Turkish forces will push ahead with the bombardment of positions of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, as Kurds continue to make advances there.

“They (the West) tell us to stop shelling” the Kurdish fighters in Syria, Erdogan said in a televised speech in the capital, Ankara.

“Forgive me, but there is no question of us doing such a thing. Whoever fires shells on Turkey will get not just a tit-for-tat response but an even greater one,” Erdogan stated.

The Turkish president said Ankara would not allow a new Qandil to be created on southern Turkish border, in a reference to the mountain in northern Iraq, which has been the stronghold of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants for years.

Over the past few days, Turkey has been shelling the positions of fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD) in northern Syria.

Ankara regards the YPG and PYD as allies of the PKK, which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.

The YPG, which is nearly in control of Syria’s entire northern border with Turkey, has been fighting against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The Turkish government is angered by the rapid advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters, who are taking advantage of Russian air cover in the region to capture territory near the Turkish border.

Tanks stationed at a Turkish army position near the Oncupinar crossing gate close to the town of Kilis, south-central Turkey, fire toward the Syria border, February 16, 2016. ©AFP

Erdogan said Ankara would “not allow… the provocative” steps taken by them in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo.
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From Russia Today

Turkey’s shelling of Syria amid ‘unique’ intl peace effort unacceptable – Russia’s UN envoy

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 23:16

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin © Eduardo Munoz Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin © Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

If Turkey continues to shell the Syrian town of Azaz amid the diplomatic community’s “unique” consolidated effort to negotiate a truce, the UN Security Council will be forced to officially condemn Ankara’s violation of international law, Russia’s UN envoy told RT.

Following a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday regarding the ongoing Turkish shelling of Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria, the council’s president urged Ankara to “comply with international law.” While falling short of full-blown condemnation into the violation of Syrian sovereignty following the non-stop shelling of Syria, the UNSC reiterated its commitment to the Munich agreement, which seeks a ceasefire in a five-year conflict.
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From Russia Today

Polish magazine depicts “European rape” at the hands of migrants, Twitter reacts

Published time: 17 Feb, 2016 19:53

© deidryalvarez © deidryalvarez / Instagram

A Polish magazine cover has sparked a fresh debate about the reporting of Europe’s migrant crisis by featuring a woman, draped in the European flag, being attacked by a group of faceless dark-skinned men while the headline screams: “The Islamic rape of Europe”.

…While many accused the Polish magazine of “fascism” and “fear-mongering”, comparing the cover to WW2 Nazi and Mussolini propaganda.
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From The Daily Mail

EXCLUSIVE: ‘He put on my frilly nightie, and danced around playing his sax.’ Former Miss Arkansas says Bill Clinton was so-so in bed and confided Hillary was into sex with women. Now she fears Hillary vendetta and sleeps with loaded semi-automatic

  • Bill Clinton’s lovemaking was largely forgettable, says ex-mistress Sally Miller, but Clinton would rarely disappoint when divulging intimate secrets
  • Miller, then 44, would leave her back door ajar so her seven-years younger paramour – then Governor of Arkansas – could slip in
  • Known then as Sally Perdue, she claims during pillow talk he revealed Hillary preferred female lovers 
  • The former singer and radio host, is preparing to dish more secrets of their three-month affair in a tell-all memoir
  • As far-fetched as her accusations may be, she is convinced that the Democratic presidential candidate is behind a plot to silence her
  • Miller insists she has been stalked, spied upon and plagued by anonymous phone calls since word of her memoir leaked out
  • ‘There is a vengeful, spiteful ugliness that some women have for other women. Hillary is just one of those women.’
  • For the latest on Hillary and Bill Clinton visit www.dailymail.co.uk/hillary

Sally Miller looked on in amusement as the man who would become the 42nd President of the United States slipped into her own frilly black nightgown.

The former Miss Arkansas has never forgotten how her younger lover proceeded to dance around the bedroom, serenading her with his saxophone and reducing her to a fit of giggles.

This playful scene was typical of the laughter-filled nights that ex-beauty queen Miller enjoyed with Bill Clinton during their 1983 affair, she tells Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.

The married Governor of Arkansas would frequently adopt the role of entertainer-in-chief to impress his glamorous older woman, a one-time Miss America finalist.

But while his attempts at lovemaking were largely forgettable, Clinton would rarely disappoint when it came to divulging intimate and potentially damaging secrets about his wife Hillary.

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From Ynet News

Who’s afraid of ISIS?

ISIS has managed to terrify millions of people all over the world. With Europe worried and Saudi Arabia sounding its war drums- what do we really know about Islamic State, what types of weapons does it possess, and how much should Israel worry? Here are the myths, the successes, and the losses of the group the world calls “ISIS.”

The terror organization known as Islamic State has killed tens of thousands, and has managed to terrify millions the world over. It has had several dubious titles bestowed upon it, and has been recognized as the “richest terrorist organization in the world.” But how much do we really know about them, and how much do we need to worry about them?

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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Lithuanian nationalists march in memory of Nazi collaborators

(JTA) — Approximately 250 Lithuanians attended a march commemorating nationalists who are accused of complicity in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust.

The march Tuesday in Kaunas, a city 65 miles east of Vilnius, was organized on Lithuania’s independence day by the Union of Nationalist Youth of Lithuania under the banner “We Know Our Nation’s Heroes.”

The so-called heroes celebrated at the march were all involved in the Holocaust or in fighting alongside Nazi Germany, according to Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who monitored the march in Kaunas along with a team of observers affiliated with defendinghistory.com — a website that reports on extremism in Lithuania.

Organizers named at the beginning of the march Jonas Noreika, who is believed to have helped murder Jews, and Juozas Ambrazevicius-Brazaitis, the leader of a local pro-Nazi government. The others recognized were Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Povilas Plechavicius, Kazys Skirpa and Antanas Baltusis-Zvejas.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Hezbollah leader threatens nuclear-type attack on Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to hit large ammonia gas tanks in Haifa that he said would wreak damage and casualties equal to a nuclear attack.

Nasrallah made the threats about a future attack on northern Israel during a speech in Beirut.

“This would be exactly as a nuclear bomb, and we can say that Lebanon today has a nuclear bomb, seeing as any rocket that might hit these tanks is capable of creating a nuclear bomb effect,” he said.

Israel’s environmental protection minister, Avi Gabbai, later told the Israeli media that he had ordered the ammonia storage facility be moved to the Negev Desert in the southern part of Israel.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Students barge in on Brooklyn College faculty meeting, demand ‘Zionists off campus’

(JTA) — Approximately 10 Brooklyn College students who interrupted a faculty meeting called for “Zionists off campus” among its list of demands.

A faculty member at the Tuesday afternoon meeting told JTA that along with the demand on Zionists, the students called one faculty member a “Zionist pig.” The educator who spoke to JTA wished to remain anonymous.

Other demands ranged from calls for better pay for adjunct teachers to ending “racist” class offerings.

Some of the faculty members at the meeting applauded during the students’ vocal protests, but it was not clear as to which demands the teachers were reacting to.
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From PressTV

Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:55PM

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has further cut its sovereign credit rating for Saudi Arabia by two levels, saying the current oil price slide has a dramatic impact on the oil-rich kingdom’s fiscal balance.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the rating agency dropped the kingdom’s long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit to A-, a two-notch downgrade from its previous rating of A+ as oil prices continued to tumble.

“Oil prices have fallen further since our last review of Saudi Arabia in October 2015, and we have cut our oil price assumptions for 2016-2019 by about $20 per barrel. In our view, the decline in oil prices will have a marked and lasting impact on Saudi Arabia’s fiscal and economic indicators given its high dependence on oil,” said S&P in the statement.

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