Wayne Madsen

U.S. President Barack Obama signaled through his press secretary Jay Carney that he would be discussing the recent cancellation by the United States of Obama’s Moscow summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama’s press conference, meant to clear the air on U.S.-Russian relations and U.S. intelligence mass surveillance of private communications, left more questions than answers. Obama’s answers to press questions were all over the map, confusing, and at times, deceptive…

Obama’s decision to nix the Moscow meeting prior to attending the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg was said to be a result of Russia’s decision to grant temporary political asylum to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. However, there are other fractious issues between Washington and Moscow that prompted Obama to abruptly cancel the meeting with Putin.

America’s neo-conservative war hawks in Congress, including Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democratic Representative Eliot Engel of New York, used the summit cancellation to push for renewed development on the U.S. missile “defense” shield that Obama put on the back burner after his re-election. War hawks are now demanding that Obama ignore Russian anxieties over the U.S. ballistic missile shield and begin deployment along Russia’s western borders.

Obama’s press conference came amid talks in Washington between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, so any abrupt change on the U.S. missile shield was not likely as long as the top Russian foreign and defense policy chiefs were talking to their American counterparts.

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Stephen Lendman

A man in Aleppo carries his belongings away after his house was
damaged in fighting between the "Free Syrian Army" and govern-
ment forces. ( Picture: AP Source: AP / The Australian)

The old saying goes be careful what you wish for. You may get more than you bargained for. Washington's wars often don't turn out as planned.

Middle East, North African, Eurasian countries are embroiled in conflict. No end game looms. Unresolved conflicts continue. Escalation's likely. US-sponsored death squads infest the region. They commit mass murder and destruction.

Official silence followed Al Nusra militants massacring 450 Kurdish civilians. Media scoundrels reported nothing. Mostly women and children were slaughtered. Assad's often blamed terrorist crimes. Syria's infested with extremist fighters. They've come from dozens of countries. They want Islamofasist rule. They want it in all or part of the Syria.

On August 6, the Wall Street Journal headlined "CIA Official Calls Syria Top Threat to US Security," saying:

CIA's "second-in-command warned that Syria's volatile mix of al Qaeda extremism and civil war now poses the greatest threat to US national security. Michael Morell says the risk is that the Syrian government, which possesses chemical and other advanced weapons, collapses and the country becomes al Qaeda's new haven, supplanting Pakistan. His forecast is all the more worrisome because it comes from a top official. I don't remember a time when there have been so many national-security issues on the front burner as there are today."

He calls Syria his top concern. "It's probably the most important issue in the world today because of where it is currently heading." It's infested with foreign fighters. They're involved with Al Qaeda-affiliated groups. They're in greater numbers than in Iraq during "the height of the war there."

Regional spillover's likely. It's happening in Lebanon. Low-level conflict threatens to increase. Jordan's at risk. So is Israel. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and other Gulf states may get a taste of their own medicine.

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Gilad Atzmon

In my latest book The Wandering Who, I explore the ideological, spiritual and political continuum between Jewish identity politics and gay theory. Yesterday, Stephen Fry, a British gay Jewish playwright and celebrity, provided us with an opportunity to review the tight political and spiritual affinity between Jewish identity politics and the LGBT call.

In An Open Letter to PM David Cameron and the IOC, Fry equated Putin’s anti gay policy with Hitler’s Jewish hatred. Fry’s argument deserves some attention.

Hitler, says Fry “banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations afflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them. He claimed they ‘polluted’ the purity and tradition of what it was to be German…”

According to Fry, “Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime, only this time against LGBT Russians. Beatings, murders and humiliations are ignored by the police. Any defence or sane discussion of homosexuality is against the law.“

Historical analogies are dangerous territory, especially when the necessary and even elementary scholarship is lacking. Needless to say that I oppose any form of abuse of human right against Jews, LGBTs, Palestinians or anyone else. However, I also oppose the emerging lame culture of sound bites and empty slogans in which Fry is, unfortunately, a leading exponent.

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