” Police raided addresses across Turkey on Tuesday and detained dozens of people after nearly three weeks of anti-government protests, local media reported.
State media TRT said 25 people had been detained in the capital Ankara, 13 in Eskisehir to the west and “many” in Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul.
A police source confirmed the operation and said: “For now, only provocateurs will be taken for questioning.” “
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” Broad majorities continue to oppose the U.S. and its allies sending arms and military supplies to anti-government groups in Syria. Last Thursday’s announcement that the U.S. would aid the rebels has not increased public support for action, and majorities of all partisan groups are opposed.
Overall, 70% oppose the U.S. and its allies sending arms and military supplies to anti-government groups in Syria; just 20% favor this. Opinion is little changed from December of last year (24% favor) and support is down slightly from March, 2012 (29% favor).”
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” Anti-government protesters were out on the streets of Ankara late into the night with police using water cannons and smoke grenades to try and disperse them.
Two of Turkey’s main unions have called a nationwide strike today. Labour groups representing doctors, engineers and dentists have said they too will take part in the national stoppage.”
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Chemical Weapons Experts Still Skeptical About U.S. Claim That Syria Used Sarin
” Chemical weapons experts voiced skepticism Friday about U.S. claims that the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had used the nerve agent sarin against rebels on at least four occasions this spring, saying that while the use of such a weapon is always possible, they’ve yet to see the telltale signs of a sarin gas attack, despite months of scrutiny.
“It’s not unlike Sherlock Holmes and the dog that didn’t bark,” said Jean Pascal Zanders, a leading expert on chemical weapons who until recently was a senior research fellow at the European Union’s Institute for Security Studies. “It’s not just that we can’t prove a sarin attack, it’s that we’re not seeing what we would expect to see from a sarin attack.”
Foremost among those missing items, Zanders said, are cellphone photos and videos of the attacks or the immediate aftermath.
“In a world where even the secret execution of Saddam Hussein was taped by someone, it doesn’t make sense that we don’t see videos, that we don’t see photos, showing bodies of the dead, and the reddened faces and the bluish extremities of the affected,” he said.
Other experts said that while they were willing to give the U.S. intelligence community the benefit of the doubt, the Obama administration has yet to offer details of what evidence it has and how it obtained it.”
Just more unsubstantiated claims from an unsubstantiated administration . For an administration that promised to be the ” most open , honest and transparent” and has been anything but , Obama has a out-sized expectation of us taking what they claim on faith . To date they’ve shown no reason for us to believe anything they say . Quite the contrary , actually .
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” Hundreds of protesters continue to occupy Gezi Park in Istanbul, despite calls by the Turkish Prime Minister for them to withdraw…. euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe Subscribe”
Courtesy Of Smashpipe
” The crisis in Syria may appear to be no more or less than a civil war in a country many people would struggle to place on a map.
But it’s much more than that: it is rapidly becoming a sectarian struggle for power that is bleeding across the Middle East, with the potential to engulf the entire region in a deadly power struggle between two bitterly opposed Muslim ideologies, Sunni and Shia.
Already, the war inside Syria has resulted in 93,000 dead and 1.6 million refugees, with millions more displaced internally. And those figures are escalating rapidly amid reports of appalling atrocities on both sides.”
” Sadly, it is an all too familiar story in a religious conflict that dates back to the 7th century.
After the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 632AD, there were four candidates vying to succeed him.
One group, which would become the Shia (or Shi’ite) sect, favoured the claims of the Prophet’s grandson Ali, but he was passed over three times before eventually taking on the mantle, only to then be assassinated.
An irrevocable split between the Shia — which is run by a clerical hierarchy — and the group that became the Sunnis came after a battle in 680, when Ali’s grandson was killed.
Today, in Syria and across the Middle East, the divide is a gulf in which theology plays an important role.”
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in
extending our commercial relations to have as little political
connection as possible… Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of
any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalships, interest, humor, or caprice?… It is our
true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of
the foreign world.”
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Watch Police Shoot Down a Drone Flying Over Istanbul
(Best Watch in Full Screen)
” The tension in Turkey is quickly approaching its breaking point as thousands of protesters gear up for a third week occupying Istanbul’s Gezi Park. This being the modern age, where computers fit in our pockets and everybody’s a potential terrorist, some locals decided to take their little camera-enabled, radio-controlled quadcopter for a spin. This, again, being the modern age, police promptly shot it down. And yes, a drone was harmed in the making of this movie.”
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Taliban Behead Boy, 10, And His Friend, 16, ‘For Spying’ After Catching Them Scavenging For Food For Their Families
” The Taliban was accused of beheading two boys for spying in southern Afghanistan yesterday. (M) Afghan officials said the boys, aged 10 and 16, were kidnapped by Taliban fighters while scavenging for food in rubbish bins near the police headquarters in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city and a key base for Western forces.
News first emerged of the 10-year-old’s death and later yesterday the Kandahar provincial government office confirmed that a second boy had also been beheaded. Both bodies were recovered in Kandahar’s Zhari district.
Kandahar governor Dr Toryalay Wessa instructed Afghan security forces and police to hunt down and catch the militants responsible for the killing ‘with whatever casualties it takes and at whatever price.’ In 2012 the Taliban were accused of beheading a 12-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl in south and east Afghanistan – the group denied responsibility in both those cases.”
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After Nidal Hasan Admitted Helping The Taliban, Can We Treat The Fort Hood Massacre As A Terrorist Attack?
” Hasan’s defense now makes it clear that this is how he considers his actions. Despite the best attempts to cover up his actions, he stated in open court that he had acted to aid the Taliban.
The judge read from his request for a continuance, seeking to confirm Hasan’s defense: that he acted “because death or grievous harm was about to be inflicted on the members of the Taliban and Mullah [Mohammed] Omar specifically by the people against whom you used deadly force.”
“That is correct,” Hasan said.
There is no longer any dispute about Hasan’s motives or affiliations. He was acting to aid the Taliban after corresponding with an Al Qaeda leader.”
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” U.S. officials gave instructions for Benghazi Medical Center to use a “John Doe” pseudonym on the death certificate of Ambassador Christopher Stevens after he died of asphyxiation in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. That’s according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official isn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The reason for the pseudonym, says the official, was to avoid drawing undue attention to the importance of the victim as Americans rushed to figure out how to recover Stevens’ body and return it to the U.S.
The official provided the most complete accounting yet of Stevens’ whereabouts and passing in the eight and a half months since his death.”
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Aerial View Of Taksim Square
” The mainstream media has yet to highlight the protests. Meanwhile, police brutality continues as over 900 people have been arrested and several have been killed.”
Blood in the Streets Of Istanbul
” Here are thirteen pictures from Twitter that show why we should take offense with mainstream media for not covering what could become an historic event.”
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