‘Deal of Century’ Architect Resigns, Palestinians Find It ’Admission of Failure’

By Ahadnews, Agencies

Jason Greenblatt, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Middle East so-called ‘peace’, is stepping down from his post — throwing even more doubt on whether the plan he architected between the Zionist entity and the Palestinians, dubbed “deal of the century”, that Trump has been teasing for months will actually work.

In a statement released by the White House, Greenblatt said he was “grateful to have been part of the team that drafted a realistic vision for ‘peace’,” which he claimed has the potential to improve the lives of millions of ‘Israelis’, Palestinians and others in the region.

But what that vision looks like or whether the White House will actually release it has been an open question since the administration took power. Greenblatt has spent nearly three years working on it with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and a few others in the administration, and we’ve yet to see their results.

Now, with Greenblatt’s sudden departure, the prospects for a comprehensive plan seem even dimmer.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official said Greenblatt’s resignation is an "admission of failure" for the White House's much-delayed plan.

Relatively, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinians were "not shedding a tear" over Greenblatt's retirement announcement.

"I think it is a final admission of failure," senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said when asked about Greenblatt stepping down.

"They tried to bash the Palestinians into submission, to blackmail us to accept whatever their plan was. From the beginning it was doomed to failure," she told AFP.

"I think the Palestinians as a whole are going to say 'good riddance'."

Relatively, Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said Greenblatt's resignation was "good news" and a sign of the Kushner team's "failure."

"Hopefully this will push the current administration to review its position and vision of conflict resolution here, for the sake of stability and security in the region," said Hamas spokesman Bassem Naim.

Last week Greenblatt said the plan would not be released until after the September 17 ‘Israeli’ election that will decide whether Trump ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power.

Iran’s submissions to 2020 Academy Awards

TEHRAN, (MNA) – For the first time, the Iranian cinema has introduced nominees for four categories of the 92nd Academy Awards, including a documentary which is also Iran's entry for international feature, an animated feature film and two short films.

The preliminary list of nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards includes four titles from Iran in four different categories: a documentary which is also the country's entry for the best international feature, an animated feature and two short films.

Interestingly, there is no feature film from Iran, which won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2017 for ‘The Salesman’ and in 2012 for ‘A Separation’, both of which directed by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi.

Out of the four submissions, the animated feature 'The Last Fiction' has a slightly better chance to make it into the final list of nominees as it is competing with only 31 other titles for the five available slots.

International Feature and Documentary

Iran selected the documentary ‘Finding Farideh’, co-directed by Azadeh Mousavi and Kourosh Atai, as its entry for the best international feature category (formerly foreign language film) in the 92nd Academy Awards.

‘Finding Farideh’ is about an Iranian girl named Farideh, who has been adopted by a Dutch couple 40 years ago, and now she overcomes her fears and travels to her motherland Iran for the first time to meet three families who claim to be her real family, and to find out about her Iranian identity and culture.

The documentary has taken part in a number of international film festivals such as the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in the US, and was selected as best documentary at the 20th Iran Cinema Celebration in Tehran in September 2013.

‘Finding Farideh’ is also eligible for the Feature Documentaries category of the 92nd Academy Awards.

The ten-nominee list for the best international feature category will be announced in December. The final nominees, which include five titles, will be announced on 13 January.

Animated Feature Film

'The Last Fiction’, written and directed by Ashkan Rahgozar and produced by Ehsan Rasulof at Hoorakhsh Studios, is one of the 32 submissions for this year's Animated Feature category of the Academy Awards.

The Iranian animation is an open interpretation of the story of 'Zahhak', a page from one of the central tales of the 'Book of Kings/Shahnameh’ written by acclaimed Persian poet Ferdowsi between 977 and 1010.

The film follows Zahhak's treacherous rise to the throne in Jamkard in Persia. The young and naïve hero Afaridoun will have to save the kingdom and its people from darkness. But he must first conquer his own demons in this portrayal of Persian mythology which reveals human nature.

'The Last Fiction’ premiered at Annecy, the world’s top animation film festival in France, and won several awards at international film festivals including the best feature animation award at the 3rd international South American films festival in Chile, the best film award at the 3rd Ajayu International Animation Festival in Peru, the best score award at the 22nd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea, as well as  Best Animated Future Film at the 16th edition of San Diego International Kids' Film Festival in the US.

While submissions reached a record high this year, only five slots are guaranteed for the best animated feature Oscar category, which include Pixar’s 'Toy Story 4' and DreamWorks’ 'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World', as well as Netflix’s 'I Lost My Body'. 

According to Indiewire, the members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to nominate the films for the five available slots, with other Academy members invited to opt in by watching a minimum number of films. 

Short Film (Live Action)

‘Tattoo’, directed by Farhad Delaram, was introduced to the 92nd Academy Awards after winning the best film award at the 17th edition of the Oscar-Qualifying Tirana International Film Festival in Albania.

The film is about a young girl who wants to renew her driving license but she is sent to the traffic police center for her tattoos. 

‘Tattoo’, as Delaram’s seventh experience as a director and first time as the producer, had previously won the Crystal Bear for best short in the Generation 14plus at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. The short film had also taken part at other prestigious festivals such as Melbourne and Raindance in the UK.

This is the second Iranian short film introduced to the 2020 Academy Awards. ‘Pedovore’ by Mohammad Kart was the first after winning the main award at the International Cinema section of the 19th Odense International Film Festival in Denmark.

‘Pedovore’ is a social drama which zeros in on the issues of the youngsters dealing with problems like child labor, bad parenting or having no parents at all.

Iran has participated at the Academy Awards 24 times. Three times, the Iranian submissions had managed to make it into the final list of nominees and two times they won the Oscar (‘The Salesman’, ‘A Separation’.)

The 92nd Academy Awards ceremony is slated to be held on February 9, 2020 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.

US propaganda on Baghdadi’s death aims to undermine efforts of Resistance Axis: IRGC

TEHRAN, (MNA) – A ranking IRGC commander said that Washington aims to play down the role of Resistance Axis in fighting terrorism in the region.

“ISIL has been defeated by regional nations and the Resistance Axis and Americans aim to question the role of Resistance in the fight against terrorism and say that ‘we are the one undermining ISIL and fighting terrorism’, but this is not the case,” Brigadier General Ismail Kowsari, Deputy Commander of IRGC’s Sarollah Base, told Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.

Despite creating an anti-ISIL coalition, Americans didn’t adopt any measure against terrorists and rather, backed these terror groups with all might and the support still continues, he added.

Trump has repeatedly admitted during his presidential election campaign that ISIL was founded by the United States, Kowsari said.

“ISIL was created by Americans and supported by them during the past years; so Americans were well aware of the terror leader’s hiding place,” he added.

“US leaders came to this conclusion that ISIL was of no use for them any longer,” he said adding that they are now mounting propaganda to claim that they are the ones fighting with terrorism.

He noted that al-Baghdadi’s story is very similar to the case of Bin-Laden al-Qaeda, saying US created both and then as soon as their expiration date arrived, made a media buzz and said that they have killed leaders of Takifiri terrorism.

The Great Wall of Gorgan: longest ancient barrier between Central Europe and China

TEHRAN – Stretched for almost 200 kilometers along northern Iran, the ancient Great Wall of Gorgan was constructed from 420s CE to 530s as a northern frontier of the then mighty Persian Empire, which was then ruled under Sassanids.

The wall was involved in a series of wars first against the Hephthalites or White Huns and later against the Turks.

Most parts of the gigantic monument are still hidden underneath the surface though some segments have so far been unearthed and even restored to former glory.

Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts along with cultural heritage experts are making efforts to put the landmark monument on UNESCO World Heritage list in the years to come.

The wall is lined by 38 forts. It is the longest fort-lined ancient barrier between Central Europe and China, longer than Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall put together, according to UNESCO.

The gigantic barrier is also more than three times the length of the longest late Roman defensive wall built from scratch, the Anastasian Wall west of Constantinople. The combined area of the forts on the Gorgan Wall exceeds that of those on Hadrian’s Wall about threefold.

UNESCO adds that the Gorgan Wall is remarkable not only in terms of its physical scale, but even more so in terms of its technical sophistication. In order to enable construction works, canals had to be dug along the course of the defensive barrier, to provide the water needed for brick production. These canals received their water from supplier canals, which bridged the Gorgan River via qanats. One of these, the Sadd-e Garkaz, survives to 700 m length and 20 m height, but was originally almost one kilometer long.

The Gorgan Wall and its associated ancient military monuments provide a unique testimony to the engineering skills and military organization of the Sassanian Empire. They help to explain its geographic extent, from Mesopotamia to the west of the Indian Subcontinent, and how effective border defense contributed to the Empire’s prosperity in the interior and to its longevity. These monuments are, in terms of their scale, historical importance and sophistication, of global significance.

 
 

US intensifies theft of Syrian oil after al-Baghdadi's death

Crescent International

US troops illegally in Syria, provide protection to private contractors smuggling Syrian oil

In characteristic style, US President Donald Trump announced the death of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Sunday October 27 as if he himself had pulled the trigger to eliminate the leader of the terrorist outfit.

It would, however, be unrealistic to assume that Baghdadi’s death would end US meddling in the region.

The terrorist outfit, Daesh (aka ISIS) and its leader were mere pretexts for continued US occupation of the Middle East.

America has been interfering in the region for nearly 80 years, long before even al-Baghdadi’s father was born. And it is not about to quit just because it has killed one of its own created terrorist monsters.

The day al-Baghdadi’s death was announced—it is reported that he blew himself up when surrounded by US forces in northeast Syria—American tanks were sent to Syrian oilfields to tighten US grip even further.

The Pentagon had announced on October 24 that it would prevent Syrian oil fields from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.

The following day, while the Pentagon chief Mark Esper embarked on the Middle East tour, Trump announced that the US would not allow terrorists or “others” to occupy the oil wells.

By “others” Trump clearly meant the legitimate government of Syria that has not given permission for US forces to be based on its soil.

At the White House press conference on October 27 Trump also announced that he intended to “make a deal with an ExxonMobil or one of our great companies to go in there and do it properly ... and spread out the wealth.”

Who gave Trump the right to decide what should be done with Syrian oil or how it should be developed?

This is grand larceny and exposes the real reason for US presence in the Middle East. Whether it was Iraq before or Syria and Yemen now, Uncle Sam acts as a robber.

This is what it has done throughout life: plunder the resources of other countries.

Bruce Riedel, a former national security adviser and now senior fellow at Brookings Institution, said the plan “is not only a dubious legal move, it sends a message to the whole region and the world that America wants to steal the oil.”

Before the war was imposed on Syria in 2011, the country’s oil output was about 380,000 barrels/day. Today it is down to a mere 40,000 barrel.

This does not mean, its oil production has gone down. What has happened is that the Americans, the Turks and their mercenaries have been stealing Syria’s oil and selling it to other countries.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow on October 26: “the space intelligence images showed that oil was actively extracted and massively exported for processing outside Syria, under the reliable protection of US troops, before and after the defeat of the Daesh terrorists.”

The Russian general further revealed that US private military companies and special operations forces guarded the convoys as they traveled from Syria into Turkey or Iraqi Kurdistan.

“Tank trucks guarded by US military servicemen and private military companies smuggle oil from fields in eastern Syria to other countries and in the event of any attack on such a convoy, US special operations forces and combat aviation are immediately used to protect it,” General Konashenkov said.

America survives and thrives on plundering the resources of other countries. As the saying goes, ‘once a thief, always a thief’!

Tide Turning Against Neoliberalism in Latin America

BRASILIA/SANTIAGO/BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – From the streets of Santiago and Quito to the ballot boxes of Buenos Aires, many South Americans have strongly rejected in recent weeks their leaders’ free market agendas, amid outcry that they are fueling inequality across the region.
With economic growth slowing sharply, job security fraying and holes in social safety nets widening, a wave of protest has arisen, spanning millions of people across the continent.
The end of the ‘pink tide’ of leftist leaders that swept Latin America in the 2000s gave way in recent years to a series of more broadly conservative governments.
But while each country has its own issues, there has been a common backlash against the "market-friendly” policies pursued by some of those governments – such as the privatizing of state assets, reduction of public subsidies, and exposure of more aspects of society to market forces.
In Chile, which introduced market reforms long before the rest of the region and is seen by many as a posterchild of neoliberalism, some 1 million people marched on Friday to protest the conservative economic agenda of billionaire President Sebastian Pinera, the largest protest since the country’s return to democracy in 1990.
That followed a week of riots in which at least 18 people were killed. The unrest began after the government raised the price of metro fares, but reflected long-simmering anger at its failure to alter Chile’s economic course despite growing inequality.
"There are two Chiles here. The Chile of people with money, and the Chile of the poor,” said Nathaly Melendez, 28, a manicurist in Santiago. "If you don’t have money, you have to wait in long lines for healthcare, education is terrible, students are all in debt.”
The protests in Chile came hot on the heels of violent demonstrations in Ecuador sparked by a proposed cut to decades-old fuel subsidies, which forced the government to temporarily relocate the capital to Guayaquil.
And in perhaps the most emphatic rejection of austerity and business friendly reforms, Argentine voters on Sunday removed conservative President Mauricio Macri in favour of Peronist Alberto Fernandez – a landslide backing for a decidedly more protectionist agenda.
Branko Milanovic, visiting professor at The City University of New York and an expert on inequality, said the uneven effects of globalization had sown discontent in Latin America.
Globalization in recent decades brought a surge in low-cost products from emerging countries like China and expanded the export markets for Latin America’s commodities, helping to fuel economic growth, but many across the region feel the rewards have accrued mostly to the wealthy.
By some measures, Chile is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America, though it also has the highest average income. According to Milanovic, the combined wealth of Chilean billionaires in 2015 was equal to a quarter of gross domestic product – the highest in the world, excluding tax havens like Cyprus, and around double the level of Mexico and Peru.
"If there is no social justice and minimum of social cohesion, the effects of growth will dissolve in grief, demonstrations, and yes, in the shooting of people,” Milanovic wrote.
The unrest coincides with a slide in Latin American economic growth in the wake of a long commodities-driven boom. The International Monetary Fund this month slashed its growth forecasts for the region this year to a dismal 0.2% – the second-slowest rate in the world, behind the Middle East and North Africa’s 0.1%.
While many people globally feel poorer as the world economy slows, in Latin America it is actually true, according to World Bank figures.
The Bank uses a variety of measures to track GDP per capita, depending on exchange rate fluctuations, and most of them suggest it is lower in the region today than it was five years ago.
According to its measure using current U.S. dollars, GDP per capita in Latin America last year was $9,023, down 13% from the peak of $10,405 in 2014.

Peace in the Middle East by 2024?

*By Robert David Steele

It has been a pleasure as well as an honor for me to be published by Tehran Times and the American Herald Tribune as well as the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC).

I was discussing my views on Middle East peace with Dr. Andrey Kortunov (Director General of RIAC), and three observations emerged from that conversation: his view that the Russians have tried everything they could to facilitate peace in the Middle East, and are at a loss for what else they might do without hurting President Donald Trump in passing; and my view that on the one hand, President Trump has such a mediocre intelligence community, such a mediocre communications staff, and such a hostile media environment totally controlled by the Deep State, that he has lost the narrative battle in the USA; and on the other, my long-standing concern that the Iranian, Turkish, and Egyptian leaders are being too cautious – too slow to see that peace in the Middle East is possible by 2024, starting with the restoration of Palestine to the Palestinians.

What Is the Challenge?

I created the above collage to illuminate several points that I do not believe are appreciated in either the USA or the Middle East.

01 Free energy and unlimited desalinated water are the cultural, economic, and political game changer. In the context of free energy not only does the Saudi regime lose all of its illicit financial advantage, at the same time that nuclear energy becomes too costly – too dangerous – to warrant further consideration by the Iranian regime; but this sets the stage for shared prosperity that will facilitate co-existence among the Sunni and Shi’ite populations.

02 Wahhabism is a scourge that must be purged.  This is not negotiable. At the same time, Qatar should understand that it can be invaded and its “leaders” hung to die on any given day. If Qatar does not cease to sponsor terrorism and agitation, it should join the Saudi leadership in Hades.

03 Palestine must be restored to the Palestinians.  This also is not negotiable. Israel is an invented state and Zionism is a criminal, genocidal, apartheid cancer on humanity (not to be confused with Jews, most of whom do not want Israel to exist and most of whom reject Zionism and its evils).

04 It is clear to me that there has not been sufficient appreciation around the world – and in the USA – for the fact that there is a direct relationship between President Trump’s utterly brilliant award of the Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson; his master stroke of temporarily moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem; and Miriam Adelson destroying the Benjamin Netanyahu regime by publicly denouncing Netanyahu’s wife as crazy and Netanyahu himself as her servant. All of this led to Netanyahu’s not being able to form a government today.

05 Jerusalem and Mecca continue to demand some form of an international solution that disconnects as quickly as possible the Zionist regime and its armed personnel from Jerusalem, and the Saudi regime and its armed personnel from Mecca. In my view, the Vatican should lose its diplomatic status worldwide as part of the same international agreement. Countries may choose to be governed by religion, but religions may not assume the rights and privileges of countries.

06 Once the Zionists are dealt with, the Kurds become easier to deal with. The Kurds have been co-opted by the Zionists.  The Kurds have been armed, financed, trained, and directed by the Zionists to destabilize every country where they have a presence.  Turkey is absolutely correct to consider the Kurds a national security issue.  At the same time, the Kurds are absolutely correct to wish for their own country. Just as Palestine has a right to exist, so also do the Kurds have a right to exist, but only in peace.

07 The USA can best help achieve Middle East peace by reducing the size of its secret intelligence community by up to 70%; by closing all US military bases in the region; and by terminating all financial support for the invented illegitimate state of Israel.

Obstacles to Progress on Peace in the Middle East

The US public remains the center of gravity for terminating the Zionist cancer and restoring Palestine, while Turkey remains the center of gravity for accepting the inevitability of a Kurdish country, perhaps one that begins as a unified Kurdish Autonomous Zone that is – if not disarmed, at least on probation such that any armed incidents and particularly any armed incursions outside the Zone during the ten year probation period will nullify and terminate the international acceptance of a potential Kurdish state.

Russia has three major problems centered on Israel, and most usefully, these problems are shared with the USA and potentially of concern to China.

01 A quarter of the population of Israel has roots in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which is to say, not just from Russia but from the “stans,” and many of them are militant and thus opposed to a Palestinian right of return that I personally consider not only essential, but something that should be funded by Europe.

02 Zionist leaders appear to be deeply connected to Russian criminal gangs and oligarchs as well as US criminal gangs and oligarchs (e.g. Lex Wexner, the man who funded the Jeffrey Epstein pedophilia political and financial blackmail network).

03 Zionist operatives have captured the government of India and have penetrated virtually every other government worldwide. The only force more powerful and embedded than the Zionists is the Freemasons, with the Knights of Malta and Opus Day in the third position.

Russia has the same problem with its media that the US does, albeit from a different perspective.

The US media is treasonous – totally controlled by the Deep State via the CIA Covert Action Staff and the domestic arm of the National Clandestine Service (a domestic arm that is illegal and not supposed to exist) and incapable of telling the truth about anything including President Trump’s strategically brilliant and historically rooted decision to honor his campaign promise and get US troops out of Syria.

The Russian media, particularly Russian media in English (Russia Today, Sputnik, Strategic Culture) is simply incompetent. They may mean well, but between Washington bureau chiefs that do not even show up for work, and poorly-educated apparatchiks that have no idea what it means to educate the public holistically, Russian communications to the USA are just as bad as the mediocre communications of the staffs that continue to fail President Trump: the WH staff, the GOP staff, the campaign staff.

China appears to be displaying great caution with respect to Israel, a caution I attribute to three factors:

01 China is busy taking over Israeli ports and have their own considerable agenda for the future there; despite its investment in a Jewish Autonomous Zone adjacent to the Russian Jewish Autonomous Oblast, China may not be ready to discuss with the Zionist leadership their need to evacuate elsewhere.

02 China may not yet appreciate that Zionism is over in the USA and soon will be over in the Middle East – China should note that when Elizabeth Warren attacks Israel over the settlements, she is saying two things: first, that she does not need Zionist money, and second, that all the Jewish votes are hers for the taking because they are anti-Zionist and anti-war.

03 Because of the above, China may not realize that the best possible course it might take on the Middle East is to agree to a state visit to Iran within the next year, by all three of the global leaders (Xi, Putin, Trump), because this gives our President “cover for action” in visiting privately with the Supreme Leader as well as publicly with the others. Just as China made possible the unification and denuclearization of the Koreas, so also can China have a salutary effect in advancing what I consider to be inevitable: peace in the Middle East rooted in the restoration of Palestine, the end of Wahhabism, and reconciliation between Sunnis and Shi’ites as well as the creation of a peace-loving Kurdistan.

We have a public education problem. This is a problem common to the leaders of China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Turkey, and the USA!

Questionable Assumptions?

There are those in the West who question the assumption that Israel can be uninvented, and those in the East who forcefully challenge the possibility of a Kurdish state being put together from bits and pieces of four other long-standing states (Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq).

Let’s take the easy one first, the invented state of Israel. Here I will just point to Shlomo Sand’s book, The Invention of the Land of Israel, a book that totally destroys the nationalist mythology and documents how Israel’s theft of Palestine was in fact based on bribery and blackmail and lies; and Henry Kissinger, who for all his flaws understood history: “In 10 years, there will be no more Israel.” That was in 2002. Add to that the historical forces that overturned apartheid in South Africa and the fact of vastly more concentrated and neo-Nazi apartheid and genocide including ghetto walls that would make a Nazi proud – combined with the resistance of the Palestinians and the ethical and practical inclinations of all the surrounding countries that see Zionist Israel as the source of most evil in the region (the Saudis and Qatar running a poor second and third) and I have to conclude, Yalla Yalla bye-bye Zionist Israel?

The Kurds are a bit harder but none the less probable.  There are 5,000 secessionist movements around the world, 27 in the USA alone, with Catalan being the most current and most violent. It is in my view inevitable that Catalan will at a minimum achieve a fully autonomous status, and it is also my view that some form of Kurdistan is inevitable, particularly if Iran and Iraq take the lead in offering to cede land to a provisional state of Kurdistan with a ten year “peace probation.” Turkey must decide if ceding a portion of land is a good deal against the certainty of decades of violence and cultural confrontation going into the future. Among the many books that support my view on this point are Vaclav Havel’s Power of the Powerless, and Jonathan Schell’s Unconquerable World.

Let’s go two steps further and add two more questionable assumptions. First, that extraterrestrials have neutralized nuclear weapons, as I said here in Tehran Times in my interview with Javad Heirannia, “Full Disclosure: Extraterrestrials, No Nuclear War, End of the Deep State?;” and second, that free energy will become a global good, which in turn enables unlimited desalinated water at the same time that it negates the risk and cost of nuclear energy – this creates infinite wealth that makes possible infinite peace.

I believe – and several others vastly more intelligent than I also believe – that in 2012 we began a 1,000 year period of peace and prosperity and that in the next ten years we will see more positive change than others have seen in the past two hundred years.  If airplanes went from a hundred meter flight in 1903 to a supersonic Concord in 1976, and if we are about to experience, as I believe a period of “full disclosure” of previously secret technologies including anti-aging as well as free energy, then I am predicting that we will see, in the next twenty-five years, both a mass awakening and elevation of consciousness and intelligence within humanity; and the public revelation of a previously secret inter-galactic trading network reserved for the 1%, now available for the benefit of all.

It is not for me to say, “and so this will be,” but rather for the leaders of the Middle East, in consultation with Xi, Putin, and Trump, to say, “this is how we wish it to be.”

Do We Need a Middle East Peace Command Based in Istanbul?

From where I sit, the creation of a Middle East Peace Command, based in Istanbul, jointly funded by China, Russia, and the USA, and jointly staffed with leadership elements from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, is the logical next step. Kurdish and Palestinian leadership elements should be welcomed, along with religious leaders including the former Bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Such a Command, with the traditional administrative, intelligence, operations, and logistics structure, could bring together in one place both the existing and new negotiations teams, and for the first time ever, a shared grip on the facts, the true costs, and the possibilities.

No one has ever done this. A Command capable of integrating and leveraging holistic analytics, true cost economics, and Open Source Everything Engineering (OSEE). A Command capable of calling out US media outlets, in particular, that are controlled by the Zionists and lying to the American public. A Command capable of providing each of the leaders – both regional (who have primacy) and global (who are in a supporting role) with total access to all relevant facts, costs, and possibilities, information that can be easily shared with the public, the media, and leaders everywhere, because it will be open source information, not secret information.

Intelligence-driven peace?  Intelligence with integrity and imagination for peace?  Yes, please.

* Robert David Steele, a former Marine Corps infantry officer and CIA spy as well as an activist for Open Source Everything Engineering (OSEE), regularly answers questions form the Tehran Times.

West scenario to overthrow Iraqi government: A plot that has been foiled

*By Mohammad Ghaderi

TEHRAN - After almost a 10-day pause, the popular protests in Iraq resumed on Friday in various cities. Although the protests led to clashes and killing of some people by intervention of infiltrators, ultimately it became an opportunity for Iraq’s government to put the demonstrators’ demands on their agenda while maintaining political independence and sovereignty.

In this regard, there are some important points that should be noticed:

1.    The popular protests have been prompted over corruption, bribery of some political parties, and government’s incompetence, which have led to class gap. Therefore, as stipulated in the constitution, public protest is a right that none of Iraqi authorities are opposed to. 

2.    The issues that have been considered as the cause of the protests are not the result of the current government’s performance alone, but the result of years of foreign intervention and sabotage by infiltrators, who have fallen short of Iraq’s national wealth after the fall of Saddam’s regime, and have put the country in many crises in different ways. Creating and backing ISIS and causing a major security crisis is only a simple example of Western hostile actions. 

3.    Some individuals in the new generation (15-25 years old), who are one of key actors in recent protests, hold the sitting government, which has adopted anti-Israeli and anti-U.S. approach, responsible for the uprising. These Iraqi youth are not aware of the problems that the West and infiltrators have caused for their country, and are influenced by social media and anti-resistance media. But what has so far prevented stability and peace in the country is the result of the policies of the West and its regional actors who are seeking to take advantage of Iraq’s insecurity. 

4.    The role of some powerful political currents in fueling the protests, with the aim of undermining Iraq’s government and seeking a share in the government, is obvious. It is a matter which has caused some conflicts, without taking Iraq’s interests into account.  

5.    The exploitation of the protests by foreign elements, who have sought revenge of axis of resistance in Iraq, is an important factor that should not be overlooked. In other words, the context prepared for legitimate protests has provided the opportunity for these elements to use all of their financial, media and intelligence facilities, as well as their embassies in Baghdad to reach their goals in three areas, including:

A.    Establishing a nationwide revolution to overthrow the current Iraqi government and pave the way for future plans. 
B.    Defaming the resistance groups and true friends of the Iraq among the youth. These groups have been the most important factor in fighting against Western proxy terrorism and have prevented the fragmentation of the country. 
C.    Assassination of key and influential figures of the resistance movement.

Accordingly, all the focus of the Western media was to portray traitor as a friend in the public opinion among the youth.  

Of course, this scenario reduced the presence of protestors in Baghdad and changed the slogans from “the fall of the government” to “reforms” by clever leadership of the religious authority, government’s great measures and cooperation of parties, as well as continued efforts by domestic media to enlighten the public opinion.  The important point is that on Friday and Saturday, the main group of protestors separated their way from rioters, following Ayatollah Sistani’s statement and trusting government’s promises to solve the problems.

Therefore, what happened in southern cities was not a demonstration, but brutal attack on parties’ headquarters and government departments by infiltrators.  It seems that this event, despite all problems, provided some significant opportunities and foiled agitators’ plots.

* Author: Mohammad Ghaderi , Tehran Times editor in chief 

U.S., Reactionary Regimes Behind Regional Turmoil

Ayatollah Khamenei:

TEHRAN (Kayhan) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday the United States and reactionary regimes are stoking unrest in Lebanon and Iraq, calling on the people of the two Arab nations to pursue their legitimate demands within the framework of law.
"The U.S. and Western intelligence services, with the financial backing of reactionary countries in the region, are spreading turmoil," Ayatollah Khamenei told graduating army cadets here.
The Leader said the biggest damage that enemies can inflict on a country is to deprive them of security, just as "they have started to do so today in some countries in the region”.
"I recommend those who care in Iraq and Lebanon remedy the insecurity and turmoil created in their countries by the U.S., the Zionist regime, some Western countries, and the money of some reactionary countries.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said people have justifiable demands, but they should know their demands can only be fulfilled within the legal structure and framework.
"When the legal structure is disrupted in a country, no action can be carried out,” he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei made a reference to peaceful protests at home in 2018 which were later hijacked by seditious elements.
"The enemies had the plots for our dear country, but fortunately the people came out in time and the armed forces were ready and that plot was neutralized," Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Leader advised the Iranian nation and armed forces against putting their trust in the enemy, and asked them to constantly monitor all the enemy's moves.
The armed forces should also be careful about the serious threat of "sedition” and stand prepared to confront it, he added.
 Ayatollah Khamenei further touched on the defeats of the occupying regime of Israel vis-à-vis the Islamic resistance.
"Who imagined the Zionist regime which could not be defeated by three Arab countries in six days would be forced to retreat in the face of the devout youth during the 33-day Lebanon war and the 22-day Gaza war? Stay assured that God fulfills His promises,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The "great march of return” in the occupied Gaza Strip, the Leader said, will lead to the return of the Palestinians one day, and the true owners of the land will return to it.
"Despite their heavy expenses, the arrogant powers have been defeated so far. They have admitted themselves that they spent $7 trillion but didn’t gain anything,” in the Middle East, the Leader said in apparent reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent remarks.

You Have Taken Over a Good Place, Hold It Fast

By: Hussein Shariatmadari

Earlier this week, in a brief analysis titled "Why This Spy Den Hasn’t Been Closed Yet?” the recent chaos in Iraq was discussed and attention drawn to certain slogans of some elements from amongst the demonstrators, and conclusion reached that such seditious slogans cannot be the wishes and desires of the people of Iraq, including protestors raising their legitimate demands.
The questions were posed: Except for the U.S., Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Daesh terrorists, could any government, party, or political current be scared stiff of the solidarity among Iran, Iraq, and Syria?
Or other than the abovementioned accomplices, could anyone else be unhappy of the presence of the proud and faithful sons of Iraq amongst the Hashd ash-Sha’bi (Popular Mobilisation Units) and their sacrifices and heroics in weeding out the savage Daesh terrorists?
Or still, for whom has the spectacular epic of multimillion followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt from all over the globe converging on Karbala in a peaceful march for the Arba’een of Imam Husain (AS), become a nightmare?
The conclusion was drawn that even if no witness or document could be found – of course these are aplenty – of the meddling of the U.S., Israel, the Saudis, the Daesh terrorists, and Ba’thists, in the recent unrest in Iraq, a cursory glance alone at the suspicious slogans raised by a few, removes any doubt that this plot is being orchestrated by the ominous Western-Arab-Hebrew Axis, which has infiltrated the peaceful protestors.
Last week’s analysis, while recalling the capture of the U.S. spy den in Iran (1979) which the Father of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini (RA) had hailed as the "Second Revolution”, raised the point that Iraq’s faithful and revolutionary youths who over the past years have enacted scores of exemplary epics through their selfless devotion, should be asked:
Why the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, or more properly the spy den, which is involved in the plots against the oppressed nation of Iraq, hasn’t been sealed?
Why they do not weed out this cancerous tumour from their holy soil?
For us in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the capture of the U.S. spy den in Tehran and erasing of this centre of conspiracy, brought us many achievements, so why should the revolutionary youth of Iraq deprive their holy homeland of such achievements?
It is to be noted that Imam Khomeini (RA) had sent a message through his son, Seyyed Ahmad, to the revolutionary youth who had captured the U.S. den of espionage, "You have taken over a good place, hold it fast.”
He had also said: "You call it an embassy, and we call it a spy den. This matter was settled when a group of our youth took it over and found out that it was not a diplomatic mission but indeed a spy den, which was set up under the guise of an embassy for espionage and plots, not just against Iran, but against the whole region. Those based in it were (professional) spies – not diplomats.”
Today all available evidences and documents prove that the recent sedition in Iraq is being conducted by the so-called embassies in Baghdad of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
In view of these facts, it could be concluded without the least doubt: The capture of these two centres of corruption and sedition ought to be the first, foremost and necessary step for resolving the current chaos in Iraq. And it is expected of the huge masses of the faithful revolutionary youths of Iraq, one of whose manifestations is the epic-creating Hashd ash-Sha’bi force, should not waste a moment in accomplishing this task.
The oppressed people of Iraq who have come out on the streets for their legitimate demands should not be left at the mercy of the plots of the Western-Arab-Hebrew Axis being carried out by thugs and arsonists of the savage and bloodthirsty Daesh and Ba’thist outfits.

Al-Baghdadi dies for the fourth time? Fake raid? Have Zionists lied to Trump again?

By Javad Heiran-Nia

TEHRAN - Robert David Steele, a former Marine Corps infantry officer and CIA spy as well as an activist for Open Source Everything Engineering (OSEE), regularly answers questions from the Tehran Times.

Q. Within minutes of President Donald Trump’s announcement of an alleged raid that allegedly killed an alleged ISIS leader known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, skeptical commentary emerged. What is your summary appreciation?

A. Let me begin by saying that people I trust tell me that the raid was very real, with helicopters flying 50 feet above the ground at 130 knots. The cost of the raid has been estimated at $30 million. What does not appear to be real are the actual location, and the alleged target.

I am among those who denounced the fake Bin Ladens including the last one provided by the Pakistani military as a gift to help Barack Obama win re-election. We sent men to their death for political theater. I knew immediately that this latest alleged raid was a fake, but chose to start with a headline, “Russia says Baghdadi killing faked by US [& Israel],” credited to Gordon Duff, founding editor of Veterans Today.  Gordon, whom I know personally, has a rich network of contacts on the ground, including Russian military commanders as well as honest Jews who despise Zionist provocations and lies. The official Russian denunciation of the raid as having never happened is a matter of record.  To that I add the earlier reported death of Al-Baghdadi in 2015 in an Israeli hospital, and the alleged but credible aspect of al-Baghdadi being a Mossad operative and Israeli citizen named Elliot Shimon, and you have the perfect storm. I believe the Zionists and the US neo-conservative lied to President Donald Trump, faked the entire raid, faked the alleged DNA testing, and have now put the President in a terrible spot.

Accepting that our Special Forces carried out a raid – somewhere -- either al-Baghdadi / Elliot Shimon is still alive as Gordon suggests, and the death was faked; or al-Baghdadi died in 2015 and this new death was faked. It is of course possible that as with Jeffrey Epstein, the President is a party to the deception one way or the other, but I tend to think not.  I think our President has been lied to.

A deeply suspicious person would also wonder if this is not a potential “kill shot” by Benjamin Netanyahu against Trump – here is what Ha’aretz says, in “Trump Basks in al-Baghdadi’s Bloody Assassination, but the Festivities Will End Shortly,”

Trump is bound to be criticized for his blood-thirsty style, as well as the fact that he hurried to announce al-Baghdadi’s demise before the Pentagon had signed off on final and incontrovertible DNA proof that the ISIS leader had indeed been killed. On the extremely unlikely chance that al-Baghdadi will emerge somewhere safe and sound, which has happened before, Trump would instantly transform, not into a lame duck but into a dead duck.

The above tells me two things: that the DNA was not confirmed as the President claimed; and that Benjamin Netanyahu might well choose one day to “resurrect” Elliot Shimon aka al-Baghdadi, as a reprisal for the Miriam Adelson Medal of Freedom that set the stage for her public denouncement of Netanyahu’s wife as crazy and Netanyahu as a servant to his wife – this cost him dearly.

Q. Apart from the Russians, who have very sophisticated S-400 target acquisition radars covering the entire region, who else is saying this is a fake raid that never happened?

A. As you might imagine, because the Zionists control most mainstream media enterprises, and this fake raid serves both the Zionists and the warmongering neo-conservatives in the USA that want to keep ISIS alive, keep stealing Syrian oil, and continue to undermine Syrian sovereignty, almost no one else is challenging the narrative with two exceptions: the Daily Star in the UK has run two pieces, “Shock claim top ISIS leader is 'Israeli spy',” and “ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘not killed by US military’ Russia claims; and citizen journalists everywhere are pointing out the obvious flaws in the story. My favorite comes from a Nordic country, where an alert citizen quickly noticed that Google Earth, which updates on a monthly to yearly basis, not a daily basis, shows the alleged raid site as having been destroyed in the past, not recently. In addition Newsweek has run with a story, “Obama White House Photographer Suggests Trump Situation Room Photo of Unfolding al-Baghdadi Raid Was Staged,” a story I agree with. 

Q. You have been a Marine Corps infantry officer; a clandestine operations officer or spy; the senior civilian responsible for creating a new national intelligence analysis center; and a J-2 intelligence analyst in Afghanistan. What other “indicators” do you personally see that suggest this story is completely false?

A. Please allow me to emphasize my view that President Donald Trump has been lied to, and is not a party to the total deception that has been imposed on him by a combination of Zionists and neoconservatives including members of his own staff who failed to defend him – in my view this terrible situation demonstrates that his new National Security Advisor – a very talented and nice person – is not up to the task of protecting the President from being lied to by the military-intelligence complex that is still in a state of treason, selected officials not-withstanding.  The Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency as well as the Secretary of State have all failed the President by going along with a false narrative that they probably knew was false but allowed to go forward because of some combination of political opportunism, Zionist bribery and blackmail, and the President’s own ego – he fell into this one, made it his own, and in so doing has disgraced himself in the eyes of Xi and Putin.

I see two levels of indicators that persuade me that this story is completely false. At the strategic level this strikes me as a blatant attempt by the Zionists and their CIA collaborators who hate President Trump to keep the Kurds whom they are arming and training and leading, in the game. The Daily Beast published “The Kurds Spotted Baghdadi. The U.S. Abandoned Them Anyway” early on, and then I saw “Baghdadi’s death underscores what we’ve lost by abandoning Syria’s Kurds,” from The Washington Post, and a series of CIA-sponsored stories about how the Kurds continued to provide leads “even after Trump abandoned them” – below is from The Economic Times of India, “CIA got initial tip-off from one of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's wives and a courier: Report,”

American officials told the newspaper that the Kurds continued to provide information to the CIA on Baghdadi's location even after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the American troops left the Syrian Kurds to confront a Turkish offensive alone.

The Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, one official said, provided more intelligence for the raid than any single country.

suggest that in combination, the Zionists and their bought and paid for allies in the US Departments of State and Defense and the CIA, are all seeking to block the President from fulfilling his campaign promise to get our forces out of the Middle East.

Given that al-Baghdadi has been reported dead multiple times, in 2014, in 2015, in 2016, I have to ask myself, is it possible that CIA and DoD and State did not know this? Or that their Middle East action officers are all Zionists, many dual US-Israeli citizens, and some being bribed and blackmailed directly by the Zionists? From where I sit, the President has fallen victim to a grand deception and he has no one – least of all the treasonous FBI – that he can rely on to protect him from traitors within our own ranks.

At the tactical level there are too many false notes across the entire story, to include dogs, an alleged tunnel with no exit, a site that has clearly been destroyed in the past, instantaneous DNA testing with the samples provided by the Kurds who are controlled by the Zionists, and more.  The similarities with the false final Bin Laden raid that led to many US deaths after the fact as part of the cover-up, are startling to include – I am not making this up – throwing the alleged target’s body parts into the ocean.  I keep waiting for CIA to release a photo of al-Baghdadi’s library before the alleged hide-out was allegedly flattened, it would not surprise me at all to learn that the long-dead al-Baghdadi was allegedly reading Team of Vipers, about all the traitors in the White House.

Q. This apparently falsified “triumph” against ISIS – and in favor of the Kurds and the US keeping military troops and even tanks on top of the Syrian oil fields – comes just as Trump appears ready to criminally indict Obama, Clapper, Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok, and Page, among others. How do you assess Trump’s prospects for the next months?

A. This falsified event will play well across America, and commentaries like mine and those of Gordon Duff will not be noticed. For all practical purposes, this event is a political triumph, never mind that it is rooted in lies. The Chinese know this is a fake attack, the Russians know this is a fake attack, by now Trump knows this is a fake attack. There are now media reports that Trump has ordered the release of the video of the alleged attack, when it comes it I expect it will be picked apart the way the video from the Christ Church false flag in New Zealand was picked apart.

On a positive note, my colleague Ben Fulford, a long-time observer of high finance and low crime based on Tokyo, has published “Third (fourth?) death of Mossad agent Shimon Elliot “al-Baghdadi” actually signifies major Middle East change,” and strikes a very upbeat note that I am prepared to embrace. The view of his Pentagon sources is that this event is going to lead to increased US-Russian collaboration in cutting off illegal oil, arms, human, and drug trafficking in the Middle East that all benefit the Zionists and the Deep State.

You mention the criminal indictments.  I published “SPECIAL: Game-Changing Court Filing by Michael Flynn Defense Lawyer Sidney Powell…PLUS DoJ Criminal Inquiry Plus Seth Rich Murder Central Brennan Task Force Plus Stone & Manafort to Get Off?” a few days ago and it has gone viral in part because Sidney Powell, the attorney for my colleague General Michael Flynn, has filed a detailed federal court document that itemizes the many crimes committed by all those seeking to fabricate the narrative of Russian election interference and Donald Trump as a Russian asset. The murder of Seth Rich is now part of the conspiracy led by President Barack Obama, and complicity in murder is on the table for all those who committed treason in mis-directing secret intelligence against then candidate Donald Trump.

I will end on a most positive note: while I would like to see our President do more to defend the US Constitution (especially  the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments), to bring all our troops home from all over the world; and to address the huge problems facing the working class and people of faith in the USA, on balance I believe that in the next few months the world will see political, legal, economic, and cultural triumphs by our President that could not have been imagined since the days of John F. Kennedy.

Unlike JFK, our President cannot be assassinated.  He will triumph. It is my hope that Iran will understand that behind the political theater and completely apart from our President’s continued tolerance of traitors in key positions, there is a house cleaning going on. From election reform to military tribunals to a global currency reset and a national debt jubilee to the reinstatement of family values and civic virtue, “Orange Man” is on a path pre-ordained by God, who absolutely has a sense of humor.

Q. You have included two book covers in your collage. How do they bear on the matter at hand?

A. My own book, EYES ONLY, signals the distress that the USA is undergoing, and the need, a need the President acknowledges, to #UNRIG the system. The book consists of two briefings and sixty-eight answers to key questions, all intended to help our President be the greatest president ever. The other book, Orange Man Good, is from America’s greatest conservative cartoonist, a man whose life has been destroyed by the Zionists because his cartoons celebrate our President and tell the truth about the Deep State and its Zionist / banker underbelly. If anyone wants to understand the bright future that is emergent in the USA, a future made possible by the accidental election of President Donald Trump, these two books tell that story.

Laugh with us, not against us. Be assured that we conservatives committed to a foreign policy of freedom, a foreign policy of peace, commerce, and honest friendship, see Iran as our friend.

Invite our President to visit Iran. I predict he will accept.