The Islamic State group (IS) has executed 700 people from a Syrian tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria over the past two weeks, the majority of whom were civilians, a Syrian monitoring group said Saturday. ● The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has consistently tracked violence on both sides of the three-year-old Syrian civil war have said that around 700 members of the al-Sheitaat tribe, from the Deir al-Zor province, have been executed and that many of them were beheaded by IS jihadists. "Those who were executed are all al-Sheitaat," Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman told Reuters by telephone from Britain. "Some were arrested, judged and killed." The conflict sucked in the al-Sheitaat tribe, who are about 70,000 in number, after the Islamic State captured two oil fields in July.

Whatsupic: Zionist front ISIS Begins Selling Iraqi Crude Oil to Turkey and Israel
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A recent social media posting believed to be a message supporting the Islamic State militant group sent from outside of the White House has attracted the attention of the United States Secret Service. ● Ed Donovan, a spokesperson for the federal law enforcement agency, told ABC News that the Secret Service is “aware” of a photo tweeted on August 9 that appears to show the flag of the group formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, displayed on a smart phone being held near the fence on the north side of the presidential residence in Washington, DC. "We have an intelligence division whose mission is to assess information that we receive every day for dangerousness or potential threat level," Donovan told the news network. "We are aware of the image and will take the necessary and appropriate follow up steps." ● The image was one of two attached to a tweet sent last week by Twitter user @Sunna_rev, alongside another photograph of a handwritten note in Arabic, dated June 20, 2014, taken outside an unknown building adorned with American flags. "Soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will pass from here soon," ABC News translated the note, which is accompanied by a Koran verse that reads: "and Allah is perfecting His Light even though the disbelievers hate (that)." The tweet itself included both images along with a message in English: "We are in your state / We are in your cities / We are in your streets.”

Moscow urges to finalise all procedures to deliver the humanitarian aid from Russia to Donbass as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday following a telephone conversation between Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and President of ICRC Peter Maurer. ● “The two parties continued detailed discussion of issues related to urgent organisation of delivery of the Russian humanitarian cargo into regions of Ukraine’s southeast suffering from the military operations,” the foreign ministry said. “Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are contacting border services of Russia and of Ukraine.” Kiev tries to review the agreements on delivery of the Russian humanitarian aid to Donbass. “We reject categorically the malicious shifting of facts, which Ukraine’s certain authorities have been doing lately. The media report Ukraine’s Security Service says the Russian side was attempting to deliver the humanitarian aid to Donbass across the checkpoints controlled by Ukraine,” the ministry’s commentary reads. “They are also multiplying the suppositions that we have not presented information on contents of the humanitarian aid.”

RIA Novosti: Russia Dismisses Allegations About Concealing Content of Humanitarian Cargo to Donbas
PressTV: Pro-Russians open supply line in eastern Ukraine

On August 9, Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was killed by a police officer named Darren Wilson in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. Eyewitnesses to the shooting report that Brown was killed while attempting to surrender, but police [now] say that Brown assaulted the officer before the shooting. ● The incident provoked immediate anger and frustration in the community and around the country. The killing of Eric Garner, also an unarmed black man, by New York City police last month revived a public conversation about the history of police violence against black men, and the killing of Brown has inflamed it. Protests began in the neighborhood immediately after Brown was shot, and continued throughout the weekend. On Sunday night, Ferguson erupted into civil unrest, with reports of looting, arson, and gunshots. Although the protests in the days that followed were largely nonviolent, an escalating and militarized police presence in the streets of Ferguson did nothing to ease the tension or soothe a concerned community, and local law enforcement's use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and dogs further eroded the trust between residents and police. On Thursday, the tide seemed to turn after Gov. Jay Dixon put the Missouri Highway Patrol in charge of security in Ferguson. But the next day, Ferguson police revealed details from the day of the shooting, and that night tensions escalated at protests.

Paul Craig Roberts ■ Cops Gone Wild
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[Don't Hold Your Breath:] Senate panel to review Pentagon program arming police departments

Tyler Durden ■ The Russian defense ministry said that there was no Russian military column that crossed into Eastern Ukraine, and that the above reports are based on "some fantasies." This is where the breakdown of logic occurs, because for Russia to make such a formal statement it clearly implies that Russia believes there is no evidence of destruction of a Russian convoy in Ukraine territory, something which obviously would exist if indeed as Ukraine's president had claimed, the "majority of the machines had been eliminated." If true, it also implies that either Ukraine had fabricated the entire story, and certainly the part about the destruction of the convoy and by extension that Russians had ever entered into East Ukraine. Furthermore, that would also suggest that the reports of the British reporters were also a fabrication. [...] The onus is on Ukraine to present some evidence, in fact any evidence, of a destroyed Russian military convoy.

Major Israeli food exporters are facing an unprecedented wave of cancelations in orders from Europe as a result of Israel’s most recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. SuperValu, the biggest food distributor in Ireland, told the Irish media last week that it has withdrawn Israeli products from its shops. And Israeli media reports suggest that other major European retailers have taken similar decisions without announcing them publicly. Israeli fruit and vegetable exporters have faced cancelations from Scandinavia, the UK, France, Belgium and Ireland.

Chris Marsden ■ Around 2,000 Palestinians were killed in the recent fighting and 10,000 wounded, mostly civilians, compared with 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians. Palestinian deaths include 459 children—a figure higher than in the previous two Gaza conflicts combined. Among the crimes to be investigated is the Israeli military’s policy of bombing family homes, based upon claims of them being used by Hamas and others as “command and control centres” or for weapons storage, and the Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah on August 1. ■ Britain’s Guardian yesterday featured the results of an investigation conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al Mezan, both based in Gaza, and the West Bank-based Al-Haq; the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem; and the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It shows that at least 59 Palestinian families suffered multiple casualties during four weeks of Israeli bombardment. The youngest person killed was 10-day old Hala Abu Madi. The oldest was Abdel al-Masri, aged 97.

Cole Stangler ■ Most progressives are, by now, familiar with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the proposed trade deal that would link the United States with Pacific Rim powerhouses like Australia and Japan. Wonkier corners of the left are equally conversant in the intrigue of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a pact that would couple the United States and the European Union. Like-minded critics would do well by memorizing yet another trade acronym: TISA, or the Trade in Services Agreement. Judging by the stakes and the ultra-secrecy of the negotiations, it could easily be the worst of the bunch. ■ Here's what we know: Fifty countries, including the United States, the EU nations, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey, have been in TISA talks since 2012. The resulting agreement will set the terms for almost 70 percent of global trade in “services”: everything from banking and construction to telecom and tourism.