Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
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From Russia Today
NATO missile defense goes live in Europe, isolating Russia not the goal – Stoltenberg
Published time: 8 Jul, 2016 22:59
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speaks to the media outside PGE National Stadium, the venue of the NATO Summit, in Warsaw, Poland July 8, 2016 © Jerzy Dudek / Reuters
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the alliance’s ballistic missile defense system in Europe is now operational. The system includes warships, long-range missile defense interceptors and radars placed across the territory controlled by the allied forces. TrendsRussia-NATO relationsTagsMilitary, NATO
“Today we have decided to declare initial operational capability of the NATO ballistic missile defense system. This means that the US ships based in Spain, the radar in Turkey and the interceptor site in Romania are now able to work together under NATO command and NATO control,” he explained.
From Russia Today
Swedes no longer want to join NATO – poll
Published time: 7 Jul, 2016 16:26
© Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters
Public support for the idea of Sweden becoming a NATO member has dropped from 41 to 33 percent in less than a year, a fresh poll has revealed.
Forty-nine percent of Swedes, who took part in the survey published by the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper, said they don’t want their country to join the US-led military bloc.
Thirty-three percent supported the possible NATO bid, while 18 percent said that they were undecided
From The Times of Israel
State Department reopens Clinton emails probe
Investigation follows Justice Department announcement that it won’t bring criminal charges over unsecured private email server
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Although the former secretary of state’s closest confidants have left the agency, they could still face punishment. The most serious is the loss of security clearances, which could complicate her aides’ hopes of securing top positions on her national security team if she becomes president.
The State Department started its review in January after declaring 22 emails from Clinton’s private server to be “top secret.” It was suspended in April so as not to interfere with the FBI’s inquiry. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the probe is restarting after the Justice Department’s announcement Wednesday that it won’t bring any criminal charges.
“We will aim to be as expeditious as possible, but we will not put artificial deadlines on the process,” Kirby said. “Our goal will be to be as transparent as possible about our results, while complying with our various legal obligations.”
Kirby wouldn’t say anything more about the precise information officials are evaluating. But when the probe was launched almost six months ago, officials said it pertained particularly to a set of emails that were upgraded to one of the nation’s highest classification levels. One question they said they were investigating was whether any of the emails were classified at the time of transmission.
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From The Times of Israel
Jewish groups slam ‘xenophobia’ in US election
Without mentioning Trump, open letter signed by 28 groups blasts anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic rhetoric
WASHINGTON — Over two dozen Jewish organizations issued an open letter Thursday afternoon in which they resoundingly criticized “xenophobia and racism” expressed by candidates and their supporters during the current US elections cycle. Without naming Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, a long list of 28 social justice groups, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), HIAS and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism voiced objection to what they described as “targeted attacks on ethnic and religious minorities by political candidates.”
Many of the organizations that signed the letter have a 501(c)3 tax status, which precludes them from taking sides for or against a candidate for political office. Still, the letter’s message seemed clearly directed toward the GOP candidate, who has been criticized for his often brash rhetoric, including repeated calls for a blanket ban on Muslim immigration to the US and a campaign promise to build a wall on the US-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration.
Trump has also won the support of white supremacist groups, including former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. He has repudiated this support, but critics charged that he did so late in the primary race and only after rampant criticism.
“We call on all Americans — in their communities and on the national stage — to refrain from and denounce all forms of hatred and extremism,” the open letter stated. “We call on all Americans who support or endorse candidates for public office to loudly and clearly condemn any and all racist and xenophobic language and actions. Instead, we must demonstrate commitment to our proud American and Jewish values of religious freedom, civil rights, refugee protection, and equality for all.”
From The Times of Israel
Dallas sniper was loner, sent home from Afghanistan in ‘highly unusual’ case
US army veteran Micah Johnson followed black militant groups on social media; police found bomb-making materials, ballistic vests and weapons in home
MESQUITE, Texas (AP) — The Dallas sniper had been sent home from Afghanistan after being accused of sexually harassing a female, and was described as a loner who followed black militant groups on social media.
Micah Xavier Johnson, who fatally shot five officers and wounded seven more before police killed him with a remote-controlled bomb on Friday, lived with family members in the blue-collar suburb of Mesquite, where he played basketball for hours at a time.
Friends there said the 25-year-old black man didn’t seem interested in politics, but his Facebook page suggests otherwise: He “liked” black militant groups including the African American Defense League and the New Black Panther Party, which was founded in Dallas.
His photo showed him wearing a dashiki and raising his fist over the words “Black Power,” and his cover shot carried the red, black and green Pan-African flag.
For six years starting in 2009, Johnson served in the Army Reserve as a private first class with a specialty in carpentry and masonry, the military said.
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From PressTV
Syrian army extends nationwide truce for another 72 hours: State media
The Syrian army has extended a three-day nationwide ceasefire that expired on Friday for another 72 hours, state media report.
The military high command said, in a statement, on Saturday that “a regime of calm will be extended for a period of 72 hours from one o’clock on July 9.”
The previous 72-hour truce, which was declared by the Syrian army on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, ran up to midnight on July 8.
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan — the ninth month on the Islamic calendar — when Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured from dawn to dusk.
The unilateral truce, however, led to no noticeable decrease in violence. On Friday night, foreign-backed Takfiri militants launched several mortar attacks against two residential areas in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, killing over two dozen people and wounding more than 100 others.
At least 30 civilians, including four children, were killed and 140 others sustained injuries as the Takfiris fired rockets at Furqan and Sukan neighborhoods in Aleppo city.
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From PressTV
Syrian forces take control of Maydaa town east of Damascus
Syrian government troops have retaken a strategic town east of the capital, Damascus, from foreign-backed militants, blocking one of their supply routes.
Government troops, backed by allied forces, on Saturday took control of Maydaa, following two weeks of fierce clashes with the so-called Jaysh al-Islam terror group, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Maydaa served as a supply line to the militant-held East Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus, and was the closest area to Zamir airbase, which foreign-backed terrorists hold east of Damascus.
The victory is the latest in a series of gains by the Syrian army against terrorists.
On Thursday, government forces cut the only way into militant-held parts of Aleppo, severing the terrorists’ only lifeline from the city to the outside world.
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From PressTV
Syria cuts only road for militants to Aleppo
The Syrian army has cut the only way into militant-held parts of Aleppo, severing the militants’ only lifeline from the city to the outside world.
The capture of the Castello Road on Thursday came in the wake of recent advances by the Syrian army in the al-Mallah Farms area northwest of Aleppo.
The army had been attempting to seize Mallah for more than two years as it runs adjacent to the Castello Road, the last route militants can use to access districts they control in the second Syrian city.
The capture of Mallah Farms and Castello Road enables Syrian forces to besiege militant-held neighborhoods of Aleppo and puts them within the firing range of the army.
Two foreign-backed militant groups and a London-based observatory confirmed the Syrian army advances on Thursday in interviews with the Reuters news agency.
“Currently nobody can get in or out of Aleppo,” the agency quoted Zakaria Malahifji of Aleppo-based militant group Fastaqim as saying.
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From PressTV
Iraq war inquiry not to ‘shy away’ from criticism
Sir John Chilcot, whose inquiry report about the British government’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq will be published on Wednesday, says he is not afraid to criticize those in charge during the war in the report.
“I made very clear right at the start of the inquiry that if we came across decisions or behavior which deserved criticism then we wouldn’t shy away from making it. And, indeed, there have been more than a few instances where we are bound to do that,” Chilcot said in an interview on Tuesday.
The Iraq Inquiry, also referred to as the Chilcot Inquiry, consisting of a 2.6-million-word report, was established in 2009 to probe the involvement of Britain in the war and its aftermath that saw British forces remain in the Arab country for six years.
The report, set to be published after about seven years, analyzes evidence about how the government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair acted before the invasion of Iraq and during the war.
Chilcot noted that any criticism would be supported by careful examination of the evidence, saying, “We are not a court – not a judge or jury at work – but we’ve tried to apply the highest possible standards of rigorous analysis to the evidence where we make a criticism.”
The 77-year-old emphasized that the inquiry was “unprecedented” in scale as his team had looked into 150,000 documents to prepare the report.
“To get to the bottom of what happened over a nine-year period – with all the legal, military, diplomatic, intelligence and political aspects of it – has proved very great,” he said.
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From Ynet News
Report: Israel ‘tampered’ with French PM’s cellphone
From Ynet News
Germany to provide additional $600 million for Holocaust survivors
In a substantial gain for Holocaust survivors the world over, the Claims Conference (short for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany) has managed to secure the approval of the German government to allocate $600 million for the home care of Holocaust survivors over the next three years.
The substantial increase in funding was reached during the organization’s yearly negotiations with the German government. The agreement will include the allocation of $200 million during the years 2016 – 17, and $400 million during 2018, this in addition to the $1 billion that the Claims Conference had already secured from the German government in 2013.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu reportedly secreted Auschwitz blueprints to Israel
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the Israeli parliament, June 28, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
BERLIN (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought back original blueprints of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp to Israel from Germany seven years ago, likely without knowing he was doing something illegal, according to a German journalist.
The blueprints were given to Netanyahu on a trip to Germany, Kai Diekmann said in an interview for the latest issue of the expat Israeli magazine Spitz in Berlin with publisher Tal Alon. They are now in the archives at Yad Vashem, the Jerusalem-based Holocaust memorial.
Diekmann, the former chief editor of Bild Zeitung, Germany’s most-read daily, told Spitz the German Federal Archives and Ministry of Interior wanted to hold on to the historical documents, which were drawn by an Auschwitz prisoner and include the signature of Heinrich Himmler. But Diekmann thought they belonged in Yad Vashem and presented them to Netanyahu in August 2009 in Berlin.
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From Russia Today
‘No means no:’ Germany toughens sex crime laws in light of Cologne attacks
Published time: 7 Jul, 2016 16:26
The Reichstag building © Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
The German parliament has unanimously passed a tougher new law on sex offenses, making any form of non-consensual sexual contact a crime and easing the deportation procedure for migrants involved in sex assaults.
The legislation, dubbed “no means no,” covers cases in which a victim withheld consent but did not physically resist the sexual attack. Under the new law, courts should take into account circumstances in which victims did not resist because they were incapacitated, taken by surprise or threatened with greater violence if they objected sexual contact.
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From The Times of Israel
Jared Kushner under fire from family over defense of Trump
Relatives of GOP candidate’s Jewish son-in-law denounce his use of family’s Holocaust history to argue against charges of anti-Semitism
Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has come under fire from his family over his recent defense of his father-in-law, who has increasingly faced charges of fostering anti-Semitism.
The GOP candidate set off a firestorm this week over a tweeted image of rival Hillary Clinton juxtaposed with piles of money alongside a six-pointed star reminiscent of a Star of David. The ad, which many have viewed as anti-Semitic, accused Clinton of being the “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”
Kushner, who has been increasingly involved in Trump’s presidential campaign, as is his wife Ivanka Trump, was forced into the spotlight this week after a Jewish employee at the New York Observer, which Kushner owns, penned an open letter to him accusing him of knowingly ignoring the anti-Semitic symbolism in the Clinton ad and pandering to white supremacists.
The letter by Dana Schwartz garnered international attention, forcing Kushner to deny the charges in a Wednesday press statement that called Trump an “incredibly loving and tolerant person who has embraced my family and our Judaism since I began dating my wife.”
An image tweeted and then deleted by Donald Trump on July 2, 2016 that uses an apparent Star of David to call Hillary Clinton the ‘Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!’ (screen capture: YouTube)
From PressTV
Italian delegation due in Damascus to revive diplomatic relations
An Italian delegation is going to pay an official visit to Damascus over the weekend in order to prepare the ground for the restoration of diplomatic relations between Italy and Syria.
President of Italy’s External Intelligence and Security Agency General Alberto Manenti, who will be heading the delegation, and his entourage will arrive at the Damascus International Airport on Saturday.
They will hold “negotiations concerning the normalization of Italy-Syria bilateral relations, the abolition of European Union (EU) embargos as conditioned by the Syrian government for any possible security cooperation” with high-ranking Syrian officials, Russia al-Youm television reported.
The Italian delegation has already pledged to pave the way for EU-Syria rapprochement as soon as possible.
Earlier this year, a high-ranking Syrian security delegation visited Italy. The delegates, led by head of the Syrian General Security Directorate Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, met and exchanged viewpoints with a number of Italian officials.
European countries have recently approached the Damascus government in search of avenues for the resumption of security cooperation against terrorism, access to the name lists of Takfiri European militants wreaking havoc in Syria, as well as information about potential terrorist attacks once they return home.
Meanwhile, an unnamed source at the Syrian Ministry of Information said a European Parliament delegation will travel to Damascus within the next few days.
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From PressTV
US reacts to ‘systematic process of land seizures’ by Israel
The United States is irked by Israel over reports that the regime is planning to build hundreds of new illegal settlement units in Palestine.
The US State Department said on Tuesday that if more settlements are to be built in the West Bank, they will serve as an obstacle to the so-called “two-state solution.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby said US officials were aware of the reports in regard to Tel Aviv’s expansionist policy.
“If true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” Kirby said at a news briefing in Washington, DC.
Kirby’s remarks came after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the decision, saying that such activities raise “legitimate questions” over Tel Aviv’s “long-term intentions” in the West Bank.
“The Secretary-General strongly criticizes the decision by Israeli authorities to advance plans to build some 560 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, as well as the advancement of plans to build 240 housing units in a number of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem,” said Ban’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, in statement released on Monday.
On Sunday, an unnamed official announced that the plans had been approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the minister of military affairs, Avigdor Liberman.
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From Ynet News
Nazi death squad member wins Canada court victory, set to stay
The Supreme Court declined to hear the government’s appeal of a lower court decision in favor of Helmut Oberlander, who says he was forced to act as a translator for the squad and never took part in atrocities.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Belgian paper demands EU action on Abbas ‘blood libel’
(JTA) — A Jewish newspaper from Belgium urged European leaders to condemn a false statement by Mahmoud Abbas, who spoke in Brussels about Jewish settlers seeking to poison water wells.
The Joods Actueel monthly on Monday published an open letter on the matter by its editor-in-chief, Michael Freilich, to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Freilich’s letter was about a June 22 speech by Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, before the European Parliament, in which he said: “Just a week ago, some rabbis rose up in Israel and explicitly announced and demanded of their government that it poison the water in order to kill the Palestinians.”
Abbas’ office later apologized for the reference to wells, which a probe by Israeli media showed was false. It provoked anger because the theme of well-poisoning Jews was frequent motif in mediaeval blood libels against Jews, which often led to deadly pogroms. Freilich called Abbas’ speech a “blood libel.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon joins US think tank
Moshe Yaalon, the former defense minister of Israel, will be a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has found a new job at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as its Rosenblatt Distinguished Visiting Fellow.
The Washington Institute, an independent and nonpartisan organization that provides research and recommendations for U.S. Middle East policy, will tap into Yaalon’s 37-year a career in the Israel Defense Forces and his policy expertise from his seven years in the Knesset, it announced in a news release Thursday.
Yaalon, who had previously held a post-military fellowship at the institute, will return to Washington, D.C., in August to focus on his writing and speaking on foreign policy and the strategic U.S.-Israel relationship.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Newt Gingrich cites Disney imagery in echoing Trump’s Star of David defense
Newt Gingrich introducing Donald Trump during a rally at the Sharonville Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 6. (John Sommers II/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Newt Gingrich defended Donald Trump’s use of an image resembling the Star of David in a tweet criticizing Hillary Clinton as corrupt.
The former House speaker, who is one of the top candidates to be Trump’s vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket, said in a phone interview with CNN Thursday that he was “very angry” about what he considered to be “the media’s deliberate distortion.”
The controversy over Trumps’s tweet began Saturday when Trump tweeted a graphic that labeled Clinton the “most corrupt candidate ever.” The image featured a six-pointed star and a pile of cash — which many critics said had clear anti-Semitic connotations, and which originally appeared on far-right web sites. The Trump campaign removed the tweet and replaced it with one in the star was swapped out for a circle. Trump denied that the star was in any way a reference to Jews.
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From The Times of Israel
Beyonce pleads to end ‘war’ on minorities after shootings
Pop star calls on millions of fans to contact US legislators over recent police killings of two black men
NEW YORK — Pop superstar Beyonce pleaded Thursday for an end to the “war” on minorities in the United States after another two contentious killings by police of African-Americans.
The singer, who has been increasingly outspoken on police brutality, provided a link to her legions of fans to contact US legislators to protest the deaths of motorist Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.
“This is not a plea to all police officers but toward any human being who fails to value human life. The war on people of color and all minorities needs to be over,” Beyonce wrote in an open letter on her website and to her more than 77 million followers on Instagram.
Beyonce voiced fear that the killings, the latest in a series of racially charged shootings in the United States, would make minorities feel “helpless and hopeless.”
“But we have to believe that we are fighting for the rights of the next generation, for the next young men and women who believe in good,” she wrote.
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From The Times of Israel
Kiev renames major street to honor Russian Nazi collaborator
Stepan Bandera’s nationalist group urged Ukranians to ‘destroy’ Jews and Poles in the 1940s
Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, on Thursday renamed its Soviet-era Moscow Avenue after a Russian figure accused by the Kremlin of siding with the Nazis during World War II.
Kiev’s local council decided that one of the bustling city’s main northern arteries will now honor Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera.
The decision is in line with the push against totalitarian regimes such as the Communist Party that Ukraine launched after the February 2014 ouster of its Russian-backed leader and the decision by the new leaders to anchor the country’s ties to the West.
Dozens of Lenin monuments have since fallen as authorities took out their outrage against a lifetime of Soviet rule.
Bandera, who died 55 year ago, remains a deeply divisive figure in Ukraine, glorified by many in western Ukraine as a freedom fighter but dismissed by millions in eastern and southeastern Ukraine as a traitor to the Soviet Union’s struggle against the occupying German army.
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From The Times of Israel
Turkey said to offer citizenship to up to 300,000 Syrian refugees
Media report generates anger among Turks; over 2.7 million Syrians now live in neighboring country
Up to 300,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey could be given citizenship under a plan to keep wealthy and educated Syrians in the country, a Turkish newspaper reported on Saturday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on July 2 that Syrian refugees in the country would be offered nationality “if they want it” — the first time such an idea had been proposed at the highest level.
Nationality would be given step-by-step, with initial plans for 30,000 to 40,000 Syrians gaining citizenship, the Haberturk daily said.
In total, Turkey is targeting giving Turkish citizenship to up to 300,000 Syrians, it added.
Turkey is hoping such a move would allow skilled Syrian refugees to become citizens, the paper said. Educated refugees from other countries could choose to become nationals as well.
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