Lugansk People’s Militia commander killed in terrorist attack (VIDEO)

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February 5, 2017 – Fort Russ News –

By J. Arnoldski –

On the morning of February 4th, Colonel Oleg Anashchenko, the head of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic, was killed when his car was blown-up by a controlled landmine in Lugansk.

The explosion took place at 7:50 A.M. on one of Lugansk’s central streets. The government of the Lugansk People’s Republic has qualified the incident as a terrorist attack by Ukrainian special forces. The interior ministry is still further investigating the tragedy. The Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE has reported that the explosive device in question amounted to upwards of 5 kg of TNT equivalent.

The day before his assassination, Anashchenko had held a press briefing in which he revealed the latest reports on Ukrainian war crimes in Donbass.

Andrey Marochko, the official spokesperson of the LPR’s People’s Militia, commented on the situation: “Despite this, Kiev’s punitive forces will not succeed in breaking the morale of the soldiers of the People’s Militia. We will find the masterminds and perpetrators of this heinous act and they will be deservedly punished,” he is quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

The General Prosecutor of the republic has officially opened a criminal case against Ukraine for “committing a terrorist act” in the form of “detonating an explosion to intimidate the population, destabilize the activities of authorities, and intentionally inflict death upon a human being.”

Anashchenko’s murder was regretted by Igor Plotnitsky, the leader of the Lugansk People’s Republic, who praised the assassinated commander: “Oleg Vladimirovich Anashchenko can confidently be called a modern hero of the rebirth of the Russian World. Since the very first days of the war, we’ve fought shoulder to shoulder for our freedom and independence, defending every inch of our native land. Our first military achievements and victories were linked to this man.”

February 5th has been declared a day of mourning in Lugansk in honor of the fallen commander.

The assassination of Anashchenko comes on the heels of the massive escalation of fighting in Donbass across nearly the entire front since January 28th.

The people’s republics of Donbass have recorded thousands of artillery bombardments on a daily basis and repeatedly stated that the latest flare up in violence is the result of offensive operations and provocations by the Ukrainian Army.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/lugansk-peoples-militia-commander.html

Massive fire from MLRS through the night in Donetsk

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February 3, 2017 – Fort Russ News –

– Red Spring, translated by Tom Winter –

Last night the Kievskiy District of Donetsk Kiev suffered massive fire from the APU, the Red Spring correspondent reported from the scene February 3.

The APU used heavy artillery, MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) “Grad,” and “Uragan” in the shelling of the northern regions of Donetsk.
Two schools (№19 and №65), two kindergartens (№354 and №204), the Kievskiy District Administration building, as well as multi-storey houses on Artema, Mountain, Mironov and Kievskiy Prospect streets were damaged.

In total, according to the Operational Command of the People’s Militia of the DPR, in the past day the APU shelled DPR territory 3481 times. The enemy fired on settlements, launching 196 MLRS “Uragan” and “Grad” projectiles, 753 152-mm, and 122-mm shells, 1086 shots from mortars, 64 fired from tanks, 91 from BMPs , as well as the fire from grenade launchers and small arms.

In total 28 settlements were fired on, including the worst-affected region, Donetsk, Makiyivka, Yasinovataya, Zaytsevo village in the north of Horlivka and villages Lenin, Telmanovo, Saganka and Kominternovo, in the south of the Republic.

Recall that in the night of February 2-3, the Kievskiy District of Donetsk, was fired with the MLRS “Grad”. Also MLRS “Uragan” rockets exploded in the evening in the around gas stations in the vicinity of the “Motel” bus station in the Kalinin district of Donetsk. There are dead and wounded among the civilians.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/02/massive-fire-from-mlrs-through-night-in.html

Belgian Members of Parliament: EU Governments Supported Terrorists in Syria

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By The Syria Times

Global Research, February 03, 2017

The Syria Times 2 February 2017

Reported by the Syrian Times:

“Instead of supporting the legitimate Syrian government the European countries supported Wahhabi terrorists who have sought destroying Syria and establishing a Wahhabi terrorist state, Member of Belgium’s Federal Parliament Filip Dewinter, leader of the Belgian parliamentary delegation visiting Syria, has stressed.

Excerpts from this report:

Dewinter made the remarks during the delegation’s visit to Aleppo on Thursday and their meeting with Aleppo Governor Hussein Diyab.

The Belgian lawmaker said he visited Syria two years ago and warned that the danger of the terrorism currently hitting Syria will backfire on its supporters and will hit America and the European countries and this is what actually happened.

Dewinter hoped that the Syrian Army’s victory over terrorism in Aleppo will help open the eyes of the European politicians and change the way they deal with events in Syria. He pointed out that the European people have realized the danger of terrorism particularly after the terrorist attacks which targeted several European countries.

Leader of the Belgian delegation, went on to say that the delegation’s visit to Aleppo aims at getting acquainted with what is really happening in Syria away from the false news reported by some western media and at conveying a real image about Syria events to the Belgian people and the European public opinion in general. ….

During its visit to Aleppo, the delegation also had the opportunity to meet a number of Islamic and Christian men of religion at “Shahba Halab” Hotel. Head of the delegation Filip Dewinter said that he can well understand the Syrian people’s anger over the wrong policies of the Belgian government as well as the governments of the rest of the European countries.

The delegation members pointed out that they will try to convey the Syrians’ message to the European people when they are back in their country.

To read the complete Syria Times article click here

http://www.globalresearch.ca/belgian-members-of-parliament-eu-governments-supported-terrorists-in-syria/5572572?print=1

Symbolic seduction: Women’s rights, partisan politics, ethnocentrism and “American narcissism”

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By Edward Curtin

Global Research, February 03, 2017

In 1929, Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, U.S./CIA war and coup propagandist, and the founder of public relations, conducted a successful mind-manipulation experiment for the tobacco industry.

In those days there was a taboo against women smoking in public, and Bernays was hired to change that.

He consulted a psychiatrist, A. A. Brill, who told him that cigarettes represented the penis and were a symbol of male power.

If women could be tricked into smoking, then they would unconsciously think they “had” their own penises and feel more powerful.

It was irrational, of course, but it worked. Bernays had, in his words, “engineered the consent” of women through symbolic prestidigitation.

The age of the image was launched.

He did this by having a group of women hide cigarettes under their clothes at a Big Easter parade in New York. At a signal from Bernays, they took out and lit up what he called “torches of freedom” (based on the Statue of Liberty).

The press had been notified in advance and dutifully photographed and reported the story. The New York Times headline for April Fool’s Day 1929 was entitled “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of Freedom.”

This fake news story made cigarettes socially acceptable for women, and sales and advertising to them increased dramatically.

The institutional power structures smiled and continued on their merry way. Women were no freer or more powerful, but they felt they were.

A symbolic taboo was breached as women were bamboozled. Image triumphed over reality.

We have moved on from the symbol of the penis to that of the “pussy,” and now the symbol is displayed openly as an ironic postmodern spectacle in the form of a sea of pussyhats.

And the fake news stories continue apace; the mind manipulators labor on and are still successful.

Genitalia remain the rage. In the 1920s there was no overt talk of the penis; the idea then was that there was an unconscious association that could sway women to smoke. Today subtlety is gone. “Pussy” power is out there, cutely symbolized by pink pussyhats (see image below), promoted by a group called the Pussyhat Project that on its website praises the Washington Post and the New York Times for their “high quality journalism” and “integrity.” “In the midst of fake news sites,” the Pussyhat Project claims, “we need high quality journalism more than ever….newspapers that have integrity….[that] can continue reporting the truth” – i.e. the Times and the Post.

By “truth” and “integrity” do the women running the site mean that the Russians are behind Trump’s election, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and there are 200 or so alternative websites that repeat Russian propaganda, a few of the lies reported by these papers of “integrity”? Or do the Pussyhat women have something else in mind?

Most women demonstrators who marched against Trump were no doubt well intentioned within their limited perspective. At the call of organizers, they were roused from their long liberal naps. Reacting to Trump’s gross comments about “grabbing pussy” – sick words, macho aggressive in their meaning – they donned their pink hats, made signs, and took their newly awakened outrage to the streets. Rightly disgusted by being verbally assaulted and afraid that their reproductive rights and services were threatened, they pounced like tigers on their verbal attacker. Massive, very well organized, media friendly marches and demonstrations followed. It was a hit parade.

Yet as others have forcefully written, something is amiss here. During the Obama years of endless wars, drone killings, the jailing of whistleblowers, including Chelsea Manning, etc., these demonstrators were silent and off the streets.

A large number of the women (if not the vast majority) who marched against Donald Trump – and the recent women’s marches can only be described as anti-Trump marches – were Hilary Clinton supporters, whether they would describe their votes as “the lesser of two evils” or not. Thus, opposition to Trump’s aggressive statements toward “pussy” was implicit support for Clinton’s and Obama’s “feminism.” In other words, it was support for a man and a woman who didn’t publicly talk aggressively about women’s genitals, but committed misogynist and misandrist actions by killing thousands of women (and men and children) all over the world, and doing it with phallic shaped weapons. Trump will probably follow suit, but that possibility was not the impetus for the marches. The marches centered on Trump’s misogynist, macho language, and his threats to limit women’s access to health services – i.e. family planning and abortion.

Since the women who recently marched didn’t march against Obama and his Secretary of State Clinton while they slaughtered foreigners (others) and Clinton exulted at the sodomized killing of Muammar Gaddafi, it is quite clear the focus of their anger was a sense of personal outrage at Trump’s insulting remarks.

Where were they these last eight years?

Mike Whitney recently said it perfectly.

“They were asleep. Weren’t they? Because liberals always sleep when their man is in office, particularly if their man is a smooth-talking cosmopolitan snake-charmer like Obama who croons about personal freedom and democracy while unleashing the most unspeakable violence on civilians across the Middle East and Central Asia….No one seems to care when an articulate bi-racial mandarin kills most people of color, but when a brash and outspoken real estate magnate takes over the reigns of power, then ‘watch out’ because here comes the protesters, all three million of them!”

Obviously partisan politics, self-interest, hypocrisy, and incredible ethnocentrism are involved. Would women’s marches have occurred if Hillary Clinton had been elected? Of course not. She would have been applauded and regaled as the first woman president, and her war-mongering history against women and men would have been excused and supported into the future, just as Obama’s has been.

This is liberal war porn by default; complicity through silence.

“Hands off my pussy.” “My pussy bites back.” These are funny repartees to Trump’s comments, but they are totally ineffectual and harmless. Trump’s objectives are larger, as were Obama’s and Clinton’s. Symbolic protests attract attention, but result in the stasis of structural power arrangements, or worse. Edward Bernays’ “torches of freedom” campaign resulted in more women smoking, more disease, and more profits for the tobacco companies. He preyed on the gullible. What was learned?

The Pussyhat Project resulted in a sea of pink adorned women and made for colorful images. Images, Daniel Boorstin wrote in his prescient 1960 book, The Image , were the future. That future is now. The language of images is everywhere, and it is tied to what Boorstin termed “pseudo-events” and our “demand for the illusions with which we deceive ourselves.”

Symbolically wearing your genitals on your head is surely an arresting image, but it is misplaced and duplicitous when one has not opposed the systematic brutality of the American empire’s ravaging around the world under Obama and Clinton.

Boorstin argued that this world of images would displace our ability to think clearly and understand the ways we were being manipulated. An image, he said, was “synthetic, believable, passive, vivid, simplified, and ambiguous.” Contrived and appealing to the senses – there are no pink pussycats as far as I know – they side-step thought and cannot, strictly speaking, be unmasked. “An image, like any other pseudo-event, becomes all the more interesting with our every effort to debunk it.” The contrivance of the image and our knowledge of its ingenuity – e.g. pussyhats – convince us that we are smart to be taken in, even when we’re not. It’s interesting to note that the word image (Latin, imago) is related to the word imitate (Latin, imatari). It’s as though certain images can serve as mirrors (“to mirror” being cognate with “to imitate”) in which we can see and mimic ourselves, “though we like to pretend we are seeing someone else.” And seeing our images in the images, we can imitate ourselves in an endless cycle of self-love and navel gazing. Selfie culture has triumphed. The society of the spectacle marches on.

The focus on genital imagery is a reflection of American narcissism, an inward gazing, while out “there,” others are being slaughtered by our masters of war. This is the start of a pink color revolution.

Edward Bernays would be proud.

The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Edward Curtin, Global Research, 2017

http://www.globalresearch.ca/symbolic-seduction-womens-rights-partisan-politics-ethnocentrism-and-american-narcissism/5572545

#DefundDAPL campaign: divest from the banks that fund the pipeline

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Divestiture goes far beyond just this one project. It takes money out of the system that funds so much suffering for the sake of profit.

From Defund DAPL

Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Join the divestiture movement.

http://www.defunddapl.org/

Move your money http://www.defunddapl.org/defund

From Yes Magazine:

Of the U.S. banks, Wells Fargo is the second-largest DAPL financier, having committed $467 million, and so far has borne the brunt of divestments from Indian Country. (Citibank is the largest DAPL financier.)

,,,

On the night of Nov. 20, when law-enforcement officers used tear gas and water cannons as part of their assault on unarmed water protectors, Janene Yazzie, a research associate in the Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science at the University of Arizona, decided she could not remain silent. Armed with the Shiprock resolutions, she’s been actively lobbying the executive and legislative branches of Navajo Nation to divest.

“As a Navajo Woman,” she wrote in an email, “watching the videos on social media disturbed me to my core. They captured proof that the so-called ‘Indian Wars’ have never ended but are, rather, coming to a culmination.” Continued banking with DAPL-invested institutions “fuels systemic injustice,” in her view, and puts “the blood of our relatives on our own hands.”

“Continued banking with DAPL-invested institutions fuels systemic injustice.”

In Idaho, acting quickly after the Standing Rock Sioux’s call for divestment, the Nez Perce tribe withdrew millions from Wells Fargo on the grounds that the bank’s investment in DAPL was “inconsistent with the views and policies of the Nez Perce.” Mary Jane Miles, chair of the tribe’s executive committee, explained why they divested:

“I feel that tribal nations need to support each other in their efforts to remind the big companies of our stewardship responsibility. Our voice needs to be heard, and if there is any way that we can enhance our position we need to do so. The Nez Perce tribe supported their sister nation in other ways as well, such as tribal members voluntarily traveling to the site to camp in the bitter cold. The protest was well warranted in our worldview and was supported in all the ways we felt was necessary,” Miles wrote.

Rudolph Ryser, a member of the Cowlitz Tribe and board chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, a research and education organization, wants Indians everywhere to follow the lead of the Nez Perce.

“It is no longer tenable for the leaders of American Indian [tribes], Canadian Indian [tribes], and Indian leaders throughout the Americas to operate as if the leaders of hemispheric nations can or will act in responsible ways toward the indigenous people or the living earth. Fourth World nations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific are in a strong position to apply pressure on investors in the Dakota pipeline banks.”

Ryser hopes to see tribes act in unison for greater impact, banding together to “demand investment changes or withdraw funds.”

The nuts and bolts of divestment are easy to accomplish, Rapp explained.

“It’s very simple,” she said. “Establish an account with another financial institution that meets your political and social needs. The tribal council signs the transfer form, and it’s done. The new institution will request the funds be transferred, and that’s all there is to it.”

Lists of non-DAPL invested banks are being circulated, and Native-owned banks are being promoted as alternatives to the 17 U.S. banks invested in DAPL.

“The Standing Rock Sioux continue to encourage and applaud divestment.”

The Standing Rock Sioux continue to encourage and applaud divestment. On Jan. 16, Indigenous Environmental Network released a focused statement on recent efforts to influence DAPL banks to renegotiate or cancel their loans. It’s likely to rev up the divestment engine. A billboard in Times Square broadcasts the rolling tally of self-reported dollars already divested (more than $55 million now); it’s also reported on the Defund DAPL website.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/defund-dapl-spreads-across-indian-country-as-tribes-divest-20170202

BBC reporter films Kiev tanks and OSCE in residential area on E. Ukraine frontline (VIDEO)

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From RT

February 2, 2017

https://www.rt.com/news/376073-avdeevka-kiev-tanks-ukraine/video/

Town of Avdiyivka, February 1, 2017. © Gleb Garanich / Reuters

A video showing Kiev’s troops and tanks in the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdeevka emerged online, posted by a BBC correspondent working in the area. Earlier, the OSCE warned tanks were headed there, slamming the move as a violation of withdrawal lines.

“We met Ukrainian troops and tanks in Avdiivka [sic] who seemed ready for action – and we could hear that there is no ceasefire here,” BBC correspondent Tom Burridge‏ tweeted along with the video.

https://twitter.com/i/videos/tweet/826812407225909249?embed_source=clientlib&player_id=0&rpc_init=1&language_code=en

Follow

Tom Burridge @TomBurridgebbc

We met Ukrainian troops and tanks in #Avdiivka who seemed ready for action – and we could hear that there is no ceasefire here #Ukraine

7:20 AM – 1 Feb 2017 · Ukraine

The video shows soldiers in Ukrainian military uniforms crowding around at least two tanks among high-rise apartment buildings in what appears to be a residential district. The 13-second-video also shows an OSCE car nearby.

A picture posted on Twitter by a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Aleksandr Kots a little earlier appears to show the tanks in the same Avdeevka neighborhood on Wednesday, February 1.

Official representative of the press center for the Ukrainian military in Donbass, Leonid Matyuhin, denied any Ukrainian tanks were in Avdeevka.

“I’ve been in Avdeevka the whole day today. I have not seen a single tank, I saw one police CRV [combat reconnaissance vehicle] with large letters on it saying ‘Police’,” Matyuhin told RIA Novosti.

“In violation of withdrawal lines, the SMM observed … two tanks (T-64) between government-controlled Orlivka (22km northwest of Donetsk) and Avdiivka (17km north of Donetsk),” the report says, stating also that Kiev’s military equipment, from howitzers to Grad rocket launcher systems, has been spotted in Kiev-controlled Talakovka, Ivanovka and Aslanovo, along with troops and “stacks of what appeared to be ammunition boxes.”

In another report, published on Wednesday, the mission claims it noted a significant increase in ceasefire violations recorded in both Donetsk and Lugansk regions and recorded the widespread use of multiple-launch-rocket systems in Avdeevka, Yasynuvata and Horlivka, with over 10,330 explosions recorded within the past three days alone.

“On 30 January, positioned in government-controlled Avdiivka, the SMM heard 1,224 undetermined explosions and about 1,400 bursts of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire 2-5km east-southeast, 1,635 undetermined explosions and over 200 bursts of heavy-machine-gun and small-arms fire 2-7km east-southeast, south-southeast, and 22 outgoing explosions 1-2km north,” the OSCE claimed.

Avdeevka has been suffering intense hostilities for days, with the spike of violence being the largest in months. Earlier this week, Ukraine officially acknowledged that its troops began a slow advance on rebel positions in eastern Ukraine. Igor Pavlovsky, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, however told the Ukrainian media that the step was provoked by actions from anti-Kiev forces.

“As of today, despite everything, meter by meter, step by step, whenever possible our boys have been advancing,” Pavlovsky said on Wednesday. He justified the advancement, saying that the “entire Donbass is Ukrainian territory.”

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began back in 2014, when the people in Donetsk and Lugansk regions rejected the armed coup in Kiev, which saw the then-President Viktor Yanukovich ousted and what later became President Petro Poroshenko’s government installed. The new authorities launched a military crackdown, which led to a bloody conflict that has claimed over 10,000 lives to date.

A ceasefire and roadmap for reconciliation were negotiated in 2015 with the help of Russia, France and Germany, dubbed the so-called Minsk Accords. It imposed an OSCE-monitored withdrawal of heavy weapons, which was supposed to be followed by other measures, including greater autonomy for the regions.

The deal, however, stalled at the withdrawal of heavy weapons, with violence still breaking out. OSCE monitors regularly report violations of the truce by both sides of the conflict.

https://www.rt.com/news/376073-avdeevka-kiev-tanks-ukraine/

Here’s what Trump’s decision means for the Dakota Access Pipeline; new wave of protests after Trump signs executive action

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From Grist

By Elizabeth Shogren
Jan 27, 2017

This story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the pipeline industry have been locked in bitter dispute over the Dakota Access Pipeline. The 1,172-mile pipeline is nearly finished, except for a section that would cross under Lake Oahe, which the tribe relies on for water. But this week, they were on the same page: They agree Trump’s executive actions will likely lead to authorizations first for the Dakota Access Pipeline and then other big projects.

On Tuesday, the president signed a memorandum instructing the U.S. Army and the Army Corps of Engineers to “review and approve in an expedited manner, to the extent permitted by law and as warranted, and with such conditions as are necessary or appropriate, requests for approvals to construct and operate (the Dakota Access Pipeline).” It also directs the Army to “consider, to the extent permitted by law,” whether to rescind the Obama administration memorandum that stalled construction last month. Following that memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the agency on Jan. 18 issued its notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement and asked for public comment due Feb. 20 before deciding whether to allow an easement needed to complete construction. The Trump memorandum also asked the Army to consider dropping that environmental impact statement.

Trump’s presidential memorandum on the Dakota Access Pipeline is full of legal language and doesn’t directly order the permit necessary for the pipeline to be completed. Still both sides concede that it paves the way for the pipeline to go ahead, probably more effectively than a direct order would have.

Industry representatives say the muted language will make it harder for successful legal challenges once the Army approves the pipeline. The president also signed another memorandum in support of reviving the Keystone XL pipeline to bring tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, and an executive order mandating that environmental reviews of infrastructure be expedited. “They did it for strategic reasons,” says John Stoody, a vice president of the Association of Oil Pipelines. “While the memorandums look vaguer on the surface (than directly ordering an easement), they’re actually stronger legally and have a better chance in resulting in a positive outcome.” Industry officials heralded Trump’s actions as an early indication that a new era of job-creating infrastructure projects has dawned.

The Standing Rock Sioux’s chief lawyer, Jan Hasselman, says under a straightforward reading of Trump’s Dakota Access Pipeline memorandum, the Corps should still go forward with the full environmental impact statement and additional consultation with the tribe as ordered by the Army. That would take many months. “Do I think that’s what’s going to happen? No,” Hasselman, an attorney for Earthjustice, conceded.

One strong point in Trump’s favor, industry officials say, is that even the Obama administration argued that the Army had been on sound legal footing when it initially conducted a streamlined environmental review instead of the full study it’s now planning. “The last administration itself admitted it comported with the law,” Stoody says.

Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy made this point when announcing the decision to stall the pipeline to conduct an environmental impact statement and further consult with the tribe. “I want to be clear that this decision does not alter the Army’s decision that the Corps’ prior reviews and actions comported with legal requirements,” Darcy wrote in a memorandum Dec. 4. “Rather, my decision acknowledges and addresses that a more robust analysis of alternatives can and should be done under these circumstances, before an easement is granted for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the Missouri River on Corps land.”

If, as expected, the Corps approves the easement, the tribe intends to challenge it in court. Hasselman underscored that Trump’s memorandum doesn’t mention the tribe, its treaty rights, or its concerns about water quality. “This is another action in a long history of sidestepping treaty rights and trampling on the rights of indigenous people,” he said. “If this is how the Trump administration is going to be approaching issues in Indian country, it’s going to be a long four years.”

Dave Archambault II, chair of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told reporters that he had repeatedly tried to speak with the Trump administration but was rebuffed.

The tribe got the attention of the Obama administration last year after thousands of protesters gathered in and near the reservation to protest the pipeline plans. Now, the tribe has asked demonstrators to leave by Feb. 18, because of concerns for their health and welfare. “We’re asking that the camp be cleared. We’re asking that people don’t come,” Archambault said during a conference call Wednesday with reporters. “The fight is now in D.C.”

Archambault called on the public to stand up and for civil servants to resist the Trump administration, warning that many more attacks on the environment and people’s rights are on the way. “Now we have to go and make noise where we can be heard.”

http://grist.org/article/heres-what-trumps-decision-means-for-the-dakota-access-pipeline/

From Lakota People’s Law Project Report
January 27, 2017

President Donald Trump has given the green light to streamline construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota. His decision is not surprising given that his cabinet picks are full of pro-oil candidates like Exxon Mobil executive Rex Tillerson and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The pipeline construction in its current proposition has been found to understate the risks posed by landslides and amount of safety construction to contain spills. Such spills are most likely going to poison groundwater that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe needs to sustain itself. If the pipeline construction is complete, Standing Rock could be the next Flint, where residents have to use bottled water for daily use.

This executive action overturns all the work water protectors have made recently under the Obama administration, and which is unfortunate because the Standing Rock Sioux tribe formally asked the encampments to disperse on Friday, January 20th according to Reuters. While Archambault stated that the fight is now in the courts, the tribe needs support and solidarity now more than ever.

This unfortunate turn of events overshadows the recent victory of the water protectors in the North Dakota Supreme Court, which allowed for out-of-state lawyers to represent the over 600 protesters that have been arrested so far . With arrests still ongoing, this number is likely to rise.

President Trump’s actions have not fallen on deaf ears, however. Various representatives of environmental groups and civil rights groups, including the ACLU and the Sierra Club, have all voiced their opposition to this revival of pipeline construction.

Activists like Chase Iron Eyes, Lead Attorney for the Lakota People’s Law Project, have been especially active in standing against these actions. On Facebook posted:

“Fighters, brothers and sisters. Come. Heed the call to defend this country against all enemies, foreign & domestic. We shall find out who loves this land, who is loyal to the water and who is a traitor to this land, to our water.”

Protests have also occurred in New York outside of Trump Tower and Trump International Hotel—attendance numbering in the hundreds—to show the President that these actions will not go on without consequence.

As the situation intensifies, people are again diverting their attention to the confrontation in Standing Rock. Chairman of the United Nations (UN) Working Group on the issue of Human Rights, Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises, Pavel Sulyandziga, and Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild, member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, have both arrived in North Dakota. These two gentlemen will be joined by representatives of the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) as well as the ACLU Human Rights Program who participated in a human rights training workshop on Sunday January 22nd.

The water protectors still have a long battle ahead of them. In addition to the frigid weather, the state of North Dakota has introduced bills that make it illegal to wear masks at protests and for people to join the resistance camps under threat of being fined $5,000 dollars. Oh but what the North Dakota assembly attempted to make legal, by way of a bill introduction, is the “unintentional” mowing down of protesters being fast moving vehicles.

If these actions are not enough to make you cringe, the Trump administration denied a request by Dave Archambault II to engage in dialogue about moving forward with the oil pipeline. If the President is not even willing to hear both sides of the issue he is essentially declaring what side he stands for.

The fight to protect the water rights and the livelihoods of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is far from over. We must remain vigilant in this crucial time and do everything we can to stand in solidarity with those who have vowed to protect the land, tribal sovereignty, and clean water.

Please add your comment to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Environmental Impact Statement at lakotalaw.org.dapl-action before the filing period ends on Feb. 20.

http://ourchildrenaresacred.org/new-wave-of-protests-after-trump-signs-executive-action-for-dapl-completion/

Foreign Ministry statement on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Donbass — Jan. 31, 2017

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Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

31 January 2017

The situation in Donbass has deteriorated sharply in recent days. Ukrainian troops continue to conduct offensive operations to seize positions held by self-defence forces, including in the suburbs of Donetsk. Heavy weapons, including heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, are being actively used to shell residential areas. According to Minsk Package of Measures of February 12, 2015, such weapons should long since have been withdrawn from the contact line. There are casualties and wounded among the civilian population. As a result of the shelling by Ukrainian troops, the Donetsk Filtration Station and the Avdeyevka Coke Chemical Plant have lost power. The lives of miners working in the mines are under threat.

We see southeastern Ukraine, which is already suffering from the economic blockade imposed by Kiev, again on the verge of a real humanitarian and environmental disaster.

All of this is a direct outcome of ongoing violations by Ukraine of its obligations under the Minsk agreements, which no one in Kiev intends to act on. Instead of efforts to achieve sustainable peace, the Ukrainian authorities are trying hard to achieve a military solution to the conflict. Everyone should remember what kind of outcome this kind of reckless behaviour has led to on previous occasions.

Strangely enough, every escalation of the situation in Donbass comes at a time when the Ukrainian leadership is away on a foreign trip. Clearly, this is an attempt to keep the crisis provoked by Kiev on the international agenda.

We urge the Ukrainian authorities to immediately put an end to the armed provocations in Donbass, comply with existing ceasefire agreements and begin, at long last, to responsibly fulfil all the provisions of the Minsk Package of Measures, including those relating to the political aspects of the existing problems.

We expect Ukraine’s partners to exert the necessary influence on Kiev to put an end to these efforts to turn the tables in Donbass and sink the Minsk agreements.

We expect a quick response on the part of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine in order to de-escalate the situation as soon as possible.

http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2618179

‘Maniac orders:’ Senior Russian MP blasts US program to estimate nuclear attack outcome

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“…witness a sick and dangerous hobby that is targeting world peace and the security of mankind as a whole.”

–MP Irina Yarovaya, Deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma

From RT

January 30, 2017

‘Maniac orders:’ Senior Russian MP blasts US program to estimate nuclear attack outcome

The deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma says the US Congress is “transfixed on war and destruction,” after it issued an order to evaluate the ‘survivability’ of Russian and Chinese leaders in the event of a nuclear exchange.

“This is a maniac order, made by people who are obsessed with the ideas of war and destruction and who want to find satisfaction in the description of possible casualties,” MP Irina Yarovaya of the United Russia party told reporters on Monday.

“The Congress’ ideas look like ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street.’” she added.

The comment comes after media reported that the US Congress had directed the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to evaluate the ‘survivability’ of Russian and Chinese leaders in the event of a nuclear exchange. Experts must now evaluate whether various senior political and military leaders of each country could survive a nuclear attack and continue operating afterwards.

Although the study was ordered before US President Donald Trump took office, news about it was released after the new president announced that Washington “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

“Instead of fighting terrorism, the US Congress is entertaining itself with hope to ‘play’ with nuclear weapons. We can witness a sick and dangerous hobby that is targeting world peace and the security of mankind as a whole,” MP Yarovaya told reporters.

In late 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted the possibility of a new arms race between Russia and the United States, blaming it on former US President George W. Bush’s withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

The Russian leader explained that as the Bush administration withdrew from the ABMT in 2002, the treaty was terminated, and Russia responded by taking measures to ensure that the US’ antimissile shield would not be effective against Russian missiles.

Putin also said, however, that the modernization of Russia’s military was completely within the framework of international agreements, including the New START. The president added that, even if Russia is drawn into an arms race, it won’t spend more than it can afford, saying “we are fine with the situation and fulfill all our [military modernization] plans.”

https://www.rt.com/politics/375637-maniac-orders-senior-russian-mp/

Banning people is wrong, but killing them is even worse; “What’s refusing a visa to a Libyan compared to bombing him?”; immigration is forced by U.S./EU rampages

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In their anti-Trump crusade, some ‘progressives’ appear perfectly happy to link arms and sing ‘Kumbaya’ with the serial warmongers who unleashed the carnage which caused the refugee crisis in the first place.

The Nuremberg judgment of 1946 rightly held that to initiate a war of aggression was the “supreme international crime,” but that seems to have been forgotten today.

From RT

By Neil Clark
February 1, 2017

Banning people is wrong, but killing them is even worse

–

Which is more morally reprehensible: (1) Introducing a ban on refugees and immigrants from a small number of countries for a temporary period or (2) Killing people and destroying their countries through illegal regime change wars?

A bit of a no-brainer, eh? It has to be the second answer, surely.

Well, you’d think so, but for some it seems, the first option is far worse than the latter.

How else to explain that large sections of the Western liberal-left seem to be more incensed by Donald Trump’s ban on visitors from some Muslim countries (unjust though it is) than they were by the war which destroyed Libya, a country that had the highest living standards in Africa.

In their anti-Trump crusade, some ‘progressives’ appear perfectly happy to link arms and sing ‘Kumbaya’ with the serial warmongers who unleashed the carnage which caused the refugee crisis in the first place?

Trump’s executive order has caused a furious liberal backlash which Obama’s backing of jihadist death squads in Syria never did. It has led to widespread protests in the US and UK. Over 1.7 million people have signed a petition calling for the State visit of the American president to the UK to be called off. In the House of Commons on Monday, Trump was called a fascist and likened to Hitler and Mussolini, while outside Downing Street angry demonstrators shouted ‘Donald Trump has got to go!’ Parliamentary sketch writer Quentin Letts said the eyes of politician Yvette Cooper were “bulging so much she could have gone to a fancy dress party as Marty Feldman.”

“If the Olympic Games ever goes in for synchronized crossness, we’ll be dead certs for a medal position,” Letts observed.

If you can’t remember this level of ‘synchronized crossness’ during Barack Obama’s bombing of Libya, then it’s not surprising. Similar protests did not occur. There was no talk of a Hollywood strike. Yvette Cooper’s eyes did not bulge; she supported the refugee-making bombing of Libya as she did the refugee-making Iraq war.

You don’t have to be a Trump supporter to acknowledge that ‘Barack O’Bomber’ and his predecessors in the White House have got off very lightly. Deportations? The ‘liberal’ Obama deported more than 2.5 million undocumented migrants between 2009-2015 and a record 438,421 people in 2013.

To the best of my knowledge, Owen Jones organized no protests.

Trump’s executive order didn’t just appear out of thin air, the list of ‘countries of concern’ was, as Seth Frantzman has pointed out, already compiled by the Obama administration. “The media should also be truthful with the public and instead of claiming Trump singled out seven countries, it should note that the US Congress and Obama’s Department of Homeland Security had singled out these countries,” Frantzan says.

The hypocrisy doesn’t end there.

We’ve heard a lot these last few days about how Trump’s ban is an “assault on American values” (Obama himself has said ‘American values’ are at stake) conjuring up an image of the pre-Trump USA whose doors were opened wide for migrants and refugees from all over the world.

The truth is that for a long time it’s been pretty tough to get into the US if you’re in possession of the ‘wrong’ kind of passport, and sometimes even if you have the ‘right’ one.

“Americans seem to think it’s alright to subject everyone else to the pointless rigmarole of passing through their Homeland Security but when they travel they expect to be allowed through other countries’ immigration without fuss,” writes Peter Hill in the Daily Express.

We all know someone who’s been turned back at US immigration as they failed one entry requirement or another, and has been sent straight back home on the next flight. The son of Hungarian friends of ours always dreamed of going to the US, and hoped to work there, but he was turned back on arrival as the authorities didn’t believe he had enough money to support himself.

Fair enough, it’s the US authorities’ call; America is a sovereign country, and they set their own rules of entry. This tough approach at the borders didn’t just start on Friday when Dr. Evil aka Donald Trump formally became president.

That said, there are legitimate grounds to object to what the new president has ordered.

Even though he wasn’t responsible for the regime change wars which caused the migrant crisis, and has promised a less meddlesome foreign policy, Trump should at least acknowledge that the US has a moral obligation to take in refugees from countries that the US, under previous administrations, has set out to destabilize.

We can also question why some countries are affected by the temporary ban, and others not. If national security is the issue, why wasn’t Saudi Arabia, the home country of 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers, on the list? I’m not suggesting Saudi nationals should be banned from the US, only pointing out the omission.

But unfair as it undoubtedly is, the reaction to Trump’s executive order has been overblown, if we compare it to the non-reaction to far worse things US governments have done. As Bertolt Brecht might have said if he was still around: What’s refusing a visa to a Libyan, compared to bombing him? The Nuremberg judgment of 1946 rightly held that to initiate a war of aggression was the “supreme international crime,” but that seems to have been forgotten today.

Such is the ‘Sorosification‘ of the Western liberal-left that to impose controls on immigration is now regarded as a more heinous crime than launching brutal, imperialist wars of aggression, which are a prime cause of the significant level of migration from the Middle East. At the same time, the people who create and propagandize for destructive wars for economic gain against countries of the global south, are regarded as less reprehensible than those who advocate visa restrictions, especially if they come out and condemn visa restrictions.

Liberals, for instance, fawned over the former Secretary of State Madeline Albright when she said she “stands ready” to “register as Muslim” in “solidarity” against Trump. The very same Madeline Albright once declared that the death of half a million (predominantly Muslim) children in Iraq due to sanctions was a price that was “worth it.”

Will Albright be met with large-scale protests next time she comes to the UK for defending infanticide in Iraq? Don’t hold your breath. She’s against ‘The Donald’ so must be a good ‘un.

Serial warmonger John McCain has also come out to blast Trump’s executive order. He’s the man who, when asked what he was going to do about Iran if elected president, sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” to the Beach Boys tune Barbara Ann.

How many Muslims would have been killed if McCain had bombed Iran? But hey, he opposes Trump’s visa ban, so he must be a pretty cool dude. Let’s invite the wannabe bomber of Teheran on the next ’Solidarity with Muslims’ protest, shall we?

In 2015, a report called Body Count, the Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, revealed that at least 1.3 million people had lost their lives in the US-led ‘war on terror’ in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.’ As I wrote at the time: As awful as that sounds, the total of 1.3 million deaths does not take into account casualties in other war zones, such as Yemen – and the authors stress that the figure is a “conservative estimate.”

The vast majority of these deaths will have been Muslims. What a pity their deaths, and the deaths of countless others in US-led regime change ops and “liberal interventions,” did not lead to the same level of ‘synchronized crossness’ that Trump’s executive order has.

Follow Neil Clark on Twitter

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at http://www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/375894-banning-people-regime-change-muslims/

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Banning people is wrong, but killing them is even worse; “What’s refusing a visa to a Libyan compared to bombing him?”; immigration is forced by U.S./EU rampages