by Stephen Lendman

Daily Israeli atrocities continue, fully supported by Washington, other Western nations, rogue regional ones and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - complicit with high crimes against peace.

Palestinians are being murdered daily - the latest victim an 8-month-old baby boy. The PA health ministry said Ramadan Mohammad Faisal Thawabta died from toxic tear gas inhalation - another victim of Israeli state terror.

Since October 1, Israeli forces murdered 71 Palestinians in cold blood, including women (one pregnant), over a dozen children and two infants.

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by Stephen Lendman

Aamer was lawlessly held in Guantanamo for 13 hellish years, nearly 14 in US captivity - uncharged and untried. He committed no crimes.

US captors knew it all along, but kept him imprisoned anyway - torturing and abusing him, forcing him to confess to things he never did.

He’s a Saudi-born, UK national since 1996, in Afghanistan doing volunteer charity work when abducted and sold for bounty to US authorities, victimized by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, taken to Guantanamo on the same day his youngest child was born. He hunger struck many times for justice. In retaliation, guards brutally beat and isolated him in solitary confinement. Bush administration officials cleared him for release in 2007. Obama held him captive until Friday.

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by Stephen Lendman

Russia’s intervention in Syria changed the dynamic on the ground and regionally, potentially with global implications, a major geopolitical development, the most important one in decades.

Washington is desperate to keep its imperial agenda on track and unchallenged - why John Kerry met with 17 of his counterparts plus EU and UN envoys in Vienna on Friday, following US, Russian, Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers meeting there on Thursday, Syria so far excluded from discussing its own future.

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MichaelCollins

The Erdoğan gang, also known as the AK Party (AKP), stole the snap elections held in Turkey on Sunday, November 1. (Image: thierry ehrmann)

This was a make-or-break election for Turkish President Recep Erdoğan. Any outcome other than single party rule by the AKP threatened Erdoğan with prosecution for well-documented financial crimes and support for terrorists in Syria. Against the record of recent elections and against public opinion polling results, AKP increased it vote share over the June elections just enough to assure an absolute majority in parliament. The would-be Sultan was saved, at least for now.

The implications for Turkey are profound. The lessons learned about the decline of the rulers and elites in Europe and the United States are of great interest as well.

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Eric Zuesse

The Turkish election on Sunday, November 1st, is a contest between a Sunni, Saudi-U.S.-allied, Islamic-run Turkey, ruled by the Islamicist Sunni Recep Tayyip Erdogan; or else a non-religious neutralist Turkey, ruled by the human rights lawyer Selahattin Demirtas. If Demirtas wins, that will be a huge blow to America’s war that aims to overthrow Syria’s Shiite non-religious President Bashar al-Assad and replace him with a Sunni. It would also be a huge blow to the jihadists’ (including ISIS’s — which is Sunni) chances of winning that war, because Turkey has been America’s essential ally (perhaps even more important than Qatar and Saudi Arabia combined) in overthrowing the non-religious Shiite Assad.

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by Stephen Lendman

Western officials and go-along media scoundrels make baseless accusations about Russia - from nonexistent Ukraine aggression to bombing hospitals and residential areas in Syria, killing civilians.

Corroborating evidence is absent, except for notable fabricated attempts, including videos unrelated to incidents cited, manufactured deception, no end to the lengths Washington will go to proliferate Big Lies, propaganda at its worst, repeated by media scoundrels as gospel, knowing they’re spreading false misinformation. On Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry summoned military attaches from America, various NATO countries and Saudi Arabia to explain their allegations.

They “were asked either to give evidences on their statements or refute what has been stated,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said, calling their allegations “outrageous,” vicious propaganda war.

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by Stephen Lendman

Longstanding Israeli policy calls for inflicting maximum pain and suffering on the entire Palestinian population - collective punishment, making conditions unbearable, a shocking indictment of a vicious Arab-hating state, waging war against defenseless people.

Since October 1, deaths and injuries increased daily. According to the PA Health Ministry, the toll through Thursday includes:

● 68 Palestinians murdered in cold blood, including 13 children;

● 921 injured from live fire, another 855 from rubber or plastic coated steel bullets at times lethal;

● 208 suffering fractures and other injuries from assaults and beatings;

● 14 burned from tear gas and concussion grenades; and

● well over 5,000 harmed by toxic tear gas inhalation.

On Thursday, Israeli forces stormed Palestine’s Al-Makassed Hospital for the third time this week - this time using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets inside the premises, turning a medical facility into a war zone.

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Eric Zuesse

The news-report that the famed investigative journalist Seymour Hersh could not find an American publisher for, and that was consequently published only in Britain, has now been publicly confirmed by a research study into the matter, a study whose findings were made public on October 21st by a committee of Turkey’s parliament and published that day in Turkey’s leading newspaper, Zaman.

The question being investigated here was who caused the sarin gas attack in Ghouta, Syria, on 21 August 2013, that killed over a thousand victims, and that U.S. President Barack Obama has used as his basis for going to war to bring down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad?

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by Stephen Lendman

Washington is desperate to find ways of countering Russia’s effective Middle East agenda - combining formidable military might against terrorism with trustworthy diplomacy, proving Moscow is a valued partner, polar opposite Washington, a rogue bully.

Obama’s pledge about no “American combat troops fighting on foreign soil” proved another of his many Big Lies. Thousands of US combat troops already operate in Iraq, along with Special Forces and CIA operatives. On October 27, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced greater numbers being sent to join them for “direct action on the ground,” he said. “We won’t hold back” - what’s already ongoing, now heading for Syria. US Special Forces will be deployed to northern areas - illegally without Damascus or Security Council authorization.

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by Stephen Lendman

US drug and biotech companies are licensed to steal, bottom line priorities their sole interest, public welfare be damned.

Big Pharma is hated for good reason. Its member companies charge the way MBA students are taught - according to what the market will bear. Grab all you can - with full government support, profits over people. It’s the American way.

Illicit drug traffickers look good by comparison. Big Pharma rips off every dollar possible. Their practices are unrestrained unless or until consumers vote with their pocket books, choose alternate products whenever possible or none when they’re not needed, many times the case.

Pill-popping is a national addiction. Got an ache, pain or emotional distress? Get a prescription. Use freely. Consumers know little or nothing about potential harmful drug side effects, especially when taken longterm. Whenever possible avoid them. Use only as prescribed as needed, when alternate remedies won’t work.

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