The ISIL Takfiri militants, who are wreaking havoc on Iraq and Syria, are using US-made weapons supplied to them through Saudi channels, a new report says. ● The study, conducted by the London-based small-arms research organization Conflict Armament Research, documented arms captured by Kurdish forces from militants over a period of 10 days toward the end of July. According to the investigation, the ISIL militants have been using “significant quantities” of arms including M16 assault rifles marked “property of the US government’. The weapons were originally given to the so-called moderate anti-government militants in Syria, the study found.

The News: Islamic State fighters using US arms: study

The controversial French comedian also claimed the 'Rothschild Mafia' was responsible for the international outrage surrounding the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley. ● He [...] compared executions by the radical Islamist group Islamic State to the guillotining of royalty and aristocrats during the French Revolution and noted that Western media made no fuss about the execution of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein or the Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi. The Paris prosecutor’s office said police were starting a preliminary investigation into Dieudonné on the grounds that he had condoned terrorism. Foley was beheaded by Islamic State militants last month after being kidnapped while covering the Syrian civil war and held for 20 months. The act caused outrage around the world. More than 100 [...] video sketches by Dieudonné have been removed from YouTube in the past few days.

Adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Yuri Lutsenko said that agreements reached at the NATO summit in Wales to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine from several countries. ● “Security. A number of agreements were reached at the NATO summit on the Western military advisers and modern arms shipments from the United States, France, Italy, Poland, and Norway,” Lutsenko said Sunday on Facebook. Earlier, in the margins of the NATO summit in Wales on September 4-5, the Ukrainian president said that the alliance would adopt a declaration on military and technical assistance to Kiev. Later, in an interview with BBC, Poroshenko confirmed that some NATO members promised to supply precision weapons to Ukraine, but refused to name them.

Julie Lévesque ■ While Gazans suffer from daily power shutdowns, Israel is signing an important deal to sell gas to Jordan, gas which, researchers say, was stolen from Palestinians. || In addition to confiscating Palestine’s energy resources, Israel has destroyed Gaza’s only power station in its latest military offensive. The Middle East Monitor reported September 4, 2014 that a Memorandum of Understanding ”is due to be signed between Israel and Jordan in the reservoir of Leviathan to export Israeli natural gas to Jordan during the next 15 years with a total value of $15 billion”. (Jordan to buy $15bn of Israeli gas, Middle East Monitor, September 4, 2014.) Israel’s first natural gas export deal will also be signed by “the Leviathan field partner Noble Energy Inc. on behalf of itself and its partners Delek Group Ltd. units Avner Oil and Gas LP and Delek Drilling Limited Partnership and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP.” (Leviathan partners signing $15b Jordanian gas deal, Globes, Israel business news, on September 3, 2014) We may recall that in the wake of the Israeli bombing and invasion under Operation Cast Lead, “Palestinian gas fields were de facto confiscated by Israel in derogation of international law”.

The damage caused by the Israeli military operation in Gaza makes it impossible for thousands of people to return home, despite the ceasefire, due to lack of services, water and electricity, Ramesh Rajasingham of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA told RT. ● The UN has released a new report stating that the number of people displaced in Gaza is still rising, despite a truce put in place after a full-scale operation by Israel against Hamas that claimed the lives of 2,210 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and over 70 Israelis. The UN report notes that there was a significant drop in the number of displaced Palestinians at the end of August, down to 53,000, but the situation changed at the beginning of this month, with more Palestinian refugees flooding into UN shelters, sending the figure up to 58,217.

Poll by Israel's Channel 2 reveals sense of despondency among many residents. Though most would never leave, attitudes on emigration soften. ● Some 30 percent of Israelis would seriously consider leaving if they could, according to a poll commissioned by Israel's Channel 2, Israeli website Globes reported Sunday. While the majority – 56 percent - responded that they would not leave Israeli even if they had the opportunity to do so, emigration is no longer the stigma in Israel it once was. Only 36 percent of respondents said they had a negative view of emigrants, according to Globes. The remainder was either neutral about emigration or even viewed it positively.

Lawrence Davidson ■ Is Israel Bad for the Jews?

American scholar of Russian studies Stephen Cohen has said that if Ukraine joins NATO, it will lead to a "nuclear war." ● U.S and NATO Responsible for Ukraine Crisis … and West Has Agreed to Cover Up Details About Shoot Down of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 Cohen also noted that the West is mainly to blame for the crisis in Ukraine, Washington's Blog reported.

"First of all, by NATO’s own rules, Ukraine cannot join NATO, a country that does not control its own territory. In this case, Kiev controls less and less by the day. It’s lost Crimea. It’s losing the Donbas—I just described why—to the war," he said. "Secondly, you have to meet certain economic, political and military criteria to join NATO. Ukraine meets none of them." "Thirdly, and most importantly, Ukraine is linked to Russia not only in terms of being Russia’s essential security zone, but it’s linked conjugally, so to speak, intermarriage. There are millions, if not tens of millions, of Russian and Ukrainians married together. Put it in NATO, and you’re going to put a barricade through millions of families. Russia will react militarily," the scholar explained.

Washington's Blog ■ Top Russia Expert: Ukraine Joining Nato Would Provoke Nuclear War
P. Haisenko ■ MH 017: The West has control of the investigation and has decided not to investigate

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said Russia could close its airspace to Western carriers if new European sanctions target Russia's oil and gas companies or impose additional financing restrictions. ● "I hoped that our partners would be smarter," Medvedev told business daily Vedomosti in an interview published Monday. "If there are sanctions related to the energy sector, or further restrictions on Russia's financial sector, we will have to respond asymmetrically." An expansion to European Union sanctions, expected to be implemented Tuesday, would ban three of Russia's main oil companies — Gazprom Neft, Transneft and Rosneft — from raising money on European capital markets for longer than 30 days, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing documents detailing the measures. The expansion to EU sanctions introduced in July would also limit the time of fund-raising to 30 days, down from the previous 90 days, for five state-run banks, including Sberbank and VTB, the report said.

RIA Novosti: Medvedev: Energy, Finance Sanctions Against Russia May Provoke 'Asymmetric Response'

Switzerland has reportedly decided it will not extradite National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US if he comes to testify against the NSA’s spying activities, Swiss media said. ● In the document, titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request,” Switzerland’s Attorney General stated that Snowden should be guaranteed safety if he arrives to the country to testify, Sonntags Zeitung reported. In particular, the report proposes to ensure the whistleblower’s safety by inviting him as a witness to a parliamentary hearing focusing on the NSA’s surveillance practices. In the document, the authority said that Switzerland does not extradite a US citizen, if the individual’s “actions constitute a political offense, or if the request has been politically motivated,” Swiss ATS news agency reported. Snowden’s safety can thus be guaranteed if it is ruled that the charges against him have a “predominantly political character,” the document concluded. The only obstacle for that could be “higher-level government commitments,” the Office of the Attorney General said, adding that it must be verified if such obligations do, in fact, exist. The document was reportedly requested last November.

The British Sterling has dropped to its lowest rate in nearly 10 months following an opinion poll showing supporters of Scottish independence in the lead. ● The pound fell by nearly 1 percent to 1.6 dollars on Monday, when trading opened in Asian markets, hitting the lowest level since last November. In addition, the pound fell sharply against the Japanese yen to 169.68, the lowest level in over three months and against the euro to 80.1 pence per euro. Meanwhile, experts believe that the sterling could fall up to 10 percent if Scotland votes to break away from the UK due to uncertainty about what will happen to the currency. The sell-off came in reaction to the Sunday results of a YouGov poll, which revealed that that 51 percent of Scots supported independence compared to the 49 percent who opposed it.

Peter Haisenko || Dreht den Geldhahn zu – und das Morden hört auf ■ Ganz allgemein darf festgestellt werden, dass es sowieso „unerklärbar“ ist, woher nichtstaatliche Kämpfer ihre Waffen und vor allem Munition beziehen. Insbesondere die IS, deren Operationsgebiete in unwirtlichen Wüstengegenden liegen, abseits irgendwelcher Warenströme, die angezapft werden könnten. Es muss also einen soliden Vorlauf gegeben haben, bevor IS derart auftrumpfen konnte. Förderlich dafür war sicherlich die Unterstützung der Assad-Gegner und auch hier zeigt sich wieder einmal, wie gefährlich es ist, Waffen an irgendeine Partei zu geben, nur weil diese gerade für die eigenen Ziele förderlich erscheint. Das gilt natürlich auch jetzt, wenn sie gegen die IS antreten soll. ■ In den Diskussionen, wie dem Terror der IS Einhalt geboten werden kann, herrscht große Ratlosigkeit. Das verstehe ich nicht. Es dürfte das Einfachste der Welt sein, den Fluss von Kapital, Waffen und Munition Richtung IS zu unterbinden und damit ihre Aktionen einfach auszutrocknen. Aber da spielen offensichtlich Interessen eine große Rolle, die jenseits der Humanität liegen. Saudi-Arabien und Katar – „feste Burgen“ der USA am Persischen Golf – sind bekannt als Geldgeber für alle möglichen Gruppierungen, die gemeinhin als Terrororganisationen bezeichnet werden. Die USA dürfen es sich nicht erlauben, diese Staaten zu verärgern, denn sie könnten sich dem Trend anschließen, ihr Öl nicht mehr für US-Dollar zu verkaufen.