Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From PressTV
Turkey’s Erdogan threatened EU with flood of refugees: Leaked report
A newly leaked report has revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened EU leaders with a flood of refugees unless Ankara was offered better funding to deal with the ongoing crisis.
On Monday, the euro2day.gr financial news website published what it claimed to be minutes of a November meeting between Erdogan, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and EU President Donald Tusk.
The report does not state the exact date of the meeting but, according to Reuters, it was probably held on November 16, 2015 in Antalya on the sidelines of a G20 summit.
During the meeting, the EU officials were attempting to gain Turkey’s support for stemming the flow of Syrian asylum seekers pouring towards Europe, most of whom arrive in Europe after crossing the sea between Turkey and Greek islands.
“We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses… So how will you deal with migrants if you don’t get a deal? Kill the refugees?” Erdogan was quoted as saying.
He also demanded some six billion euros over two years. When the amount was denied by Junker, Erdogan said that his country did not need the money anyway.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
US officials: Israel won’t get better aid deal after Obama leaves office
JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. officials reportedly have urged Israel to sign the 10-year foreign aid package on the table, saying it will not get a better deal with the next president.
“Even as we grapple with a particularly challenging budget environment, this administration’s commitment to Israel’s security is such that we are prepared to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Israel that would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history,” an unnamed senior U.S. official told Haaretz on Sunday night.
“Israel is of course free to wait for the next administration to finalize a new MOU should it not be satisfied with such a pledge, but we would caution that the U.S. budgetary environment is unlikely to improve in the next 1-2 years and Israel will certainly not find a president more committed to Israel’s security than is President Obama.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish groups slam Ted Nugent for anti-Semitic gun control post
(JTA) — Right-wing rocker Ted Nugent came under fire from Jewish groups for an anti-Semitic Facebook post blaming prominent Jews for pushing gun control.
Nugent shared a graphic featuring images of 12 Jewish leaders — including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer — branded with Israeli-flag images. Above the images are the words: “So who is really behind gun control?”
Along with the graphic, which has previously appeared on anti-Semitic websites, Nugent wrote:
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From PressTV
UN investigator Carla Del Ponte supports Russian airstrikes in Syria
A member of the UN commission of inquiry on Syria has supported Russia’s airstrikes against terrorist groups operating in the Arab country.
“I think the Russian intervention is a good thing, because finally someone is attacking these terrorist groups,” Carla Del Ponte told Swiss broadcaster RTS on Monday, listing the Daesh Takfiri group and the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front among the groups targeted.
However, Del Ponte, a former chief prosecutor of UN international criminal law tribunals, added that the Russians are not apparently “distinguishing enough between the terrorists and others.”
High-ranking Russian officials have repeatedly said that they are targeting all terrorist groups in Syria, including Daesh, denying Western media reports that civilians have been killed in Russian airstrikes.
Moscow began its aerial military campaign against terrorists in Syria on September 30 last year upon a request from the Damascus government. Since then, it has killed hundreds of Daesh terrorists and other foreign-backed militants, and inflicted heavy material damage on them.
She went on to say that peace would only be established in Syria through negotiation with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“If you want a ceasefire, if you want peace, you first have to negotiate with the government,” the 68-year-old Swiss national said.
Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The conflict has reportedly claimed the lives of over 260,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
From PressTV
Saudi Arabia, NATO to discuss Syria troop deployment: Reports
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Saudi Arabia are reportedly set to discuss Riyadh’s proposal for troop deployment to Syria under the pretext of fighting Takfiri Daesh terrorists.
Saudi media quoted NATO sources as saying on Monday that Saudi Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman is scheduled to attend the Western military alliance’s meetings in Brussels this week to hold talks on Riyadh’s plan for ground intervention into Syria.
The meetings will be attended by member states of the US-led coalition purportedly striking Daesh positions.
The participants are also slated to exchange views on the performance of the 34-strong coalition formed by the Saudi regime last December with the declared aim of fighting “global terrorism,” according to Saudi Arabia’s news 24 website.
Last week, military officials in Saudi Arabia announced that kingdom is ready to send ground troops to Syria if the US-led coalition, which claims to be targeting terrorists in Syria, decides to start such operations.
Although swiftly welcomed by allies like the United States, the proposal was met with huge criticism from Syria and Damascus’ allies.
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From Russia Today
Canada to quit coalition’s anti-ISIS airstrikes by Feb 22, triple special forces on the ground
Published time: 8 Feb, 2016 20:43
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at a news conference in Ottawa, Canada, February 8, 2016. © Chris Wattie / Reuters
Ottawa will not participate in airstrikes carried out by the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria and Iraq from February 22, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced on Monday.
Although the country will conclude its bombing mission and pull six CF-18 fighter jets from the region, it will still maintain two surveillance planes and refueling aircraft in the area.
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From Russia Today
ISIS declares rallies of France’s National Front are ‘prime targets’
Published time: 8 Feb, 2016 20:05
© Jean-Paul Pelissier / Reuters
For the first time, the Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) has targeted France’s right-wing National Front (FN) party and its supporters in a statement on the pages of its French-language propaganda magazine.
In the latest issue of Dar al Islam, the jihadists published a photo of an FN rally with the caption “prime targets.”
“The question is no longer whether France will be hit again by attacks like those of November… The only relevant question is the next target and the date,” the text read, as cited by Le Figaro.
A photo of an FN rally with the accompanying quote was tweeted by Romain Caillet, an Islamist expert and historian of global jihadist movements.
In response, the secretary general of the National Front challenged Prime Minister Manual Valls on Twitter, asking him if he was “satisfied,” referring to the PM’s harsh rhetoric condemning the right-wing party. Speaking on France Inter in December, Valls described FN as “racist and anti-Semitic,” while claiming that if they won power in regional polls, it could lead to “civil war” in France.
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From The Times of Israel
Bloomberg confirms he’s considering White House run
Billionaire ex-NY mayor says he’s ‘looking at all options,’ calls presidential race ‘discourse and discussion distressingly banal’
Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and billionaire media owner, has stated for the first time that he is considering launching a White House bid this year.
The move would thoroughly upend a presidential race that has already kicked into high gear, as Republicans and Democrats battle it out for prominence in Tuesday’s crucial New Hampshire primary.
Bloomberg, who mulled running in previous elections and has criticized the quality of debate in the 2016 race, told the Financial Times he was “looking at all options” when asked whether he was considering throwing his hat in the ring.
“I find the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters,” he said, adding that Americans deserved “a lot better.”
The comments came after The New York Times reported last month that Bloomberg had instructed advisers to draft plans for a potential independent presidential bid that could see him spend at least $1 billion of his estimated $40 billion fortune.
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From The Telegraph (UK)
Israeli minister embarrassed after revealing security co-operation with Egypt
Close security ties usually kept quiet to spare Arab regime criticism from its people
An Israeli minister has broken one of the Middle East’s key unwritten rules by publicly praising his country’s close security co-operation with Egypt, most of whose citizens fiercely resent its ties to the “Zionist state”.
Yuval Steinitz, the energy minister, revealed on Saturday that Egypt’s decision to flood the underground supply tunnels run by Hamas from the Egyptian Sinai into Gaza had been to a “certain extent at Israel’s request”. Security co-operation with Egypt was “better than ever”, he added.
From The Independent
A plan must be made for ‘life after Isis’ in the Middle East
Government troops walk past Isis flag in recaptured Syrian town Getty Images
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Sanders says he has consulted with J Street, Arab American Institute on Middle East
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said he took advice on the Middle East from J Street and the Arab American Institute.
The Vermont Independent senator, mounting a tough challenge to front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination, has been under pressure to provide details on his foreign policy.
Clinton, a former secretary of state, has an array of foreign policy advisers, while Sanders lists none as formally advising his campaign, which until now has focused mostly on income inequality.
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From Russia Today
‘Me or terrorists?’ Furious Erdogan tells US to choose between Turkey and Syrian Kurds
Published time: 8 Feb, 2016 10:59
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan. © Umit Bektas / Reuters
Riled by a meeting between a US official and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which controls the Syrian town of Kobane, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Washington to choose between Turkey and, as he put it, the “terrorists.”
A delegation featuring Brett McGurk, the United States’ envoy to the coalition it leads against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), met the YPG over the last weekend in January. The YPG took full control of Kobane late last June, in what was a powerful symbol of Kurdish resistance.
“He [Brett McGurk] visits Kobane at the time of the Geneva talks and is awarded a plaque by a so-called YPG general?” Erdogan told reporters on his plane while returning from a trip to Latin America and Senegal, the Beser Haber newspaper reported.
“How can we trust [you]?” Erdogan said.
“Is it me who is your partner, or the terrorists in Kobane?” the Turkish president said, adding that both the PYD and the YPG are “terrorist organizations.” Ankara considers them to be part of the PKK, banned in Turkey as a terrorist group.
According to US officials, the trip appeared to be the first of its kind to northern Syria since 2013. It took place after the YPG’s political wing, Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), was excluded from new peace talks in Geneva. Ankara had threatened to boycott the talks if the PYD were invited.
The conflict between the Turkish government and Kurdish insurgent groups demanding greater autonomy for the large ethnic group has been continuing for decades. With several failed ceasefires between the sides, Ankara has been blamed by a number of human rights groups for putting civilian lives at risk in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Anti-Semitism a ‘recurrent problem’ in Dutch schools, gov’t report says
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Anti-Semitism is a persistent problem in some Dutch schools and especially among Muslim pupils, according to a new government-commissioned report on discrimination in education.
The findings appeared in a 55-page report titled “Two Worlds, Two Realities – How Do You Deal with It as a Teacher,” which was published last week by the Dutch-Jewish journalist Margalith Kleijwegt at the request of the Dutch Ministry of Education.
The report, which is based on visits to schools and conversations with dozens of teachers since January 2015, say teachers sometimes feel powerless to change the deep-seated biases and violent attitudes of some pupils, including against Jews.
One female teacher of high-schoolers in Amsterdam told Kleijwegt that following a program about democratic values and against discrimination, a female pupil of Moroccan descent stood up and said: “If I had a Kalashnikov [assault rifle], I’d gun down all the Jews.” She then made shooting gestures and sounds.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
In all-Chabad Israeli village, Brooklyn meets country living
KFAR CHABAD, Israel (JTA) — In an otherwise deserted field at the center of this rural Israeli village, a Brooklyn brownstone presents an incongruous sight.
If it looks like it would fit perfectly in Crown Heights, that’s because it already does. The three-story apartment house topped by three gables is a brick-for-brick reconstruction of 770 Eastern Parkway, the storied headquarters of the late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The address is etched next to the doorway of the Israeli replica, 6,000 miles from Brooklyn and about 11 miles from Tel Aviv.
“The building is an alternative to whoever can’t go to him in the United States,” said Rabbi Menachem Latar, the manager of the Israeli version of 770, referring to Schneerson. “As a Chabad Hasid, if you were with the rebbe and had a meeting with the rebbe, you imagine everything that was in the presence of the rebbe.”
The out-of-place brownstone symbolizes the mission of this community of 6,000 Chabadniks, who call their village the “capital city” of the Chabad movement. Its warehouses organize and distribute ritual and educational materials for the Hasidic outreach movement’s global network of emissaries, and it acts as a home base for Chabad Hasidim across Israel.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Labor Party approves Isaac Herzog’s plan for West Bank withdrawal
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Labor Party unanimously approved a plan presented by its leader, Isaac Herzog, that would promote a two-state solution through unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank.
The plan was approved on Sunday during a party convention. Party members also voted to postpone until May discussing the date of the next leadership primary.
Herzog in a statement posted on Facebook praised the vote, adding that it is a “major struggle for the state of Israel to remain safe, Jewish and democratic.”
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