Syrian rebels staged kidnapping of MSNBC's Richard Engel.

Syrian Rebels Caught in ‘False-Flag’ Kidnapping
April 16, 2015

By Robert Parry

In December 2012, Syria’s U.S.-backed “moderate” rebels pulled off a false-flag kidnapping and “rescue” of NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel and his crew, getting the crime blamed on a militia tied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a propaganda scam that NBC played along with despite having evidence of the truth.

On Wednesday, Engel, who had blamed an Assad-linked Shiite militia in reports both for NBC and Vanity Fair, acknowledged that a new examination of the case persuaded him that “the group that kidnapped us was Sunni, not Shia.” He added that the kidnappers “put on an elaborate ruse to convince us they were Shiite shabiha militiamen.”

Richard Engel, NBC’s chief foreign correspondent.
According to an account published by the New York Times on Thursday – in its “Business Day” section – NBC executives had evidence from the beginning that the actual kidnappers were part of “a Sunni criminal element affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, the loose alliance of rebels opposed to Mr. Assad.”

The Free Syrian Army has been the principal rebel force supported by the U.S. government which, in April 2013, several months after Engel’s high-profile ordeal, earmarked $123 million in aid to the group to carry out its war against Assad’s government.............

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/04/16/syrian-rebels-caught-in-false-flag-kidnapping/

I like what Obama has done in negotiating inspection of Iranian nukes BUT...

If Obama is serious why is he not fighting the attempt to make Chuck Schumer minority leader in the Senate? Schumer is aligned to AIPAC. He will do everything in his power to kill the treaty

What percentage of the black community ultimately voted for Rahm?

That is an interesting question because I suspect Obama's ability to get black registered voters, to vote for Rahm may have decisive. Seems like that is an advantage the machine won't have in future elections when Obama is no longer President.

Question? If the New Democrats really wanted to moderate America why not join the Gop?

Question? If the New Democrats really wanted to moderate America why not join the Gop, instead of the Democrats? It seems like the republicans are the reason our country is extreme, not traditional democrats. By joining the Democrats the centrists marginalize the moderate left, and leave the Republicans to the birchers and the kkk. That is what pulls the country toward extremism! Liberal working class are left with no one representing them, and the birchers and kkk have an entire party to themselves.

dlc-new democrat-third way strategy

They want to pick up moderate republicans that don't like the religious right, then they want to marginalize traditional democrats. They have been largely successful. These former republicans maintain conservative economic views.

Their second goal is to get corporate donations. Their interests conflict with those of traditional labor and working class people. Many people who post here are party bosses.

You are right about this. I remember someone who was critical of the labor record Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and they were run off the GD by Mirt people. That is all about fundraising. They were flamed and insulted and when they fought back the Mirt bullies reported on his posts. I assume he lost postng privileges for a while or was banned.

I also think the Southern type dem was traditionally antiuion because that is the way their states create jobs. Mostly by taking union factories from pro-union states and opening them as anti-union.

Putting up with Scott Brown a little while netted good results for Massachusetts

Hillary's loss probably makes it less likely the republicans will hold both houses. We do have many split government voters in the US. Getting congress back clearly helps us groom a more diverse field of future presidential candidates. We will lose Roe and that is sad but the truth is this hurts red state women who most likely voted for not having such rights. In moderate to progressive states it creates a strong incentive for women to really vote out right wingers and fence sitters. It also destroys the power of the wishy-washy voter, who is pro-choice but votes for the gop to cut taxes. They can't rely on the courts to defend abortion from the gop tax cutters anymore, so they will have fish or cut bait. I doubt it will make much of a difference in terms of economic or foreign policy. Hillary is very very conservative on economic and foreign policy.

Too bad for Hillary her husband signed the 96 telecommuncation bill

Not many of the media monopolists like her much. Has Bill ever said he was sorry for it? Has Hillary ever proposed any reforms that would reverse the damage?

Politico: Victoria Nuland fell in love w/ Kagan because of his political beliefs.

People have criticized some of my other posts on Vicky Nuland because it unfair to hold her accountable for her neocon husbands political beliefs, or assume they play a role in her own. Well how about her own self-reported bio. She loves Kagan for his neocon views.

From politico.


Victoria Nuland and Robert Kagan fell in love “talking about democracy and the role of America in the world” on one of their first dates. It’s a shared passion that hasn’t faded over time.
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Favorite book this year: Steve Sestanovich’s Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama. Solid history and important corrective to many prevalent myths about American foreign policy during the past 70 years. I hope he’s right that a return to global engagement is right around the corner—though I don’t see it at the moment.
Uber or taxi? What’s Uber?
New York Times or BuzzFeed? What’s BuzzFeed?
Edward Snowden: hero or traitor? Traitor with a capital T.
NULAND
Favorite book this year: A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra’s beautiful, painful novel of post-war Chechnya.
Uber or taxi? Usually taxi, but have been known to Uber when the hand wave fails.
New York Times or BuzzFeed? The Gray Lady, of course!
Edward Snowden: hero or traitor? Coward, for hiding out in Moscow rather than letting the U.S. justice system decide.
It was just two years ago that President Obama was gushing to aides about an essay that Kagan, a historian and author, wrote about the myth of American decline—a theme Obama echoed in his State of the Union that January. This year, Kagan’s sprawling New Republic essay, “Superpowers Don’t Get to Retire,” insisted on America’s enduring responsibility to shape the world order—and issued a direct challenge to a president who has summarized his own foreign-policy doctrine with a minimalist “don’t-do-stupid-shit” directive. Obama promptly invited Kagan in for a West Wing consult, but it was also clear that Kagan had helped rouse the president’s Republican critics, who


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/politico50/2014/victoria-nuland-47.html#.VOdbeMmIKog#ixzz3U2TB1toe



If she loves him for his views she holds those views. Case closed!! Why did Hillary and Obama give her a position in the state department? They are Lynn and Dick Cheney Jr.

BTW, I believe this will be a neocon dream election. Both the republican and democratic bases will be suckered into voting for their PNAC shills because they are theoretically "lesser evils!"

I do think Warren is letting the country down if she allows the neocons to clear the field for their shills. I don't think this is an accident, that we have no other candidates but neocons. I think they want to establish a precedent of not allowing anyone to run but neocon warmongers.

My other posts on this are in my journal.

The drop in oil prices gives the elites much less money to spend on campaigns. Don't you think.....

Don't you think that levels the playing field for progressive politicians? I mean it hurts the Texas oil Birchers and it also hurts the Silcon Valley Center-right Venture capitalists, with all their investments in Alt-Energy stocks.

Of Coarse the Saudis were most probably after Putin and the Chavistas in Venezuela, not to mention Tesla, and the Tar Sands in Canada, but they may have inadvertently leveled the playing field for economic progressives to win elections. The traditional conservatives who fund the Turd Way Democrats, and the Far Right Elites who bankroll the GOP are hurt by this.

Anyone think this antiWarren freakout might be an indication she is going to run? n/t