RUTHFULLY YOURS

Prior to any discussion on what to do about Venezuela, a consensus about what led to this crisis needs to be reached. The role of Iran is critical in such a conversation.

As in the Syria conflict, Iran’s primary role is preparing the Venezuelan battlefield through a range of operations in irregular warfare, using non-state actors and surrogates to gain influence over the population.

Strong evidence suggest that Venezuela used its immigration agency to provide Venezuelan identities and documents to several hundred, if not thousands, of Middle Easterners. Without proper vetting and verification measures in place, and a high degree of counterintelligence support, our regional allies will not know if Venezuelan refugees spilling across borders are legitimate refugees or members of a transregional clandestine network between Latin America and the Middle East.

Any intervention in Venezuela — military, humanitarian or otherwise — will not work unless it is aimed at removing the external influences, especially Iran, Russia and China, that have turned Venezuela into the Syria of the Western Hemisphere.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just completed, by most accounts, a successful visit to Latin America. He began his five-nation tour by invoking the Monroe Doctrine and suggesting the Venezuelan military could manage a “peaceful transition” from the authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro. This reminded several regional observers of President Trump’s suggestion last year of a possible “military option” for Venezuela, hinting at possible U.S. or multilateral intervention to stop the country’s collapse.

An armed action or military intervention in Venezuela by any nation in the Western Hemisphere, including Venezuela’s own military, must take into account the role of Iran, Russia and China in the crisis. Russia and China were prominently mentioned by Tillerson during his visit to the region; Iran, however, was notably absent from his remarks.

Prior to any discussion on what to do about Venezuela, a consensus about what led to this crisis needs be reached. The role of Iran is critical in such a conversation.

Why, yes these people are fully rational. And we should absolutely trust them to use nuclear weapons responsibly. Unless the atomic lizards get to them first.

Western spies used lizards which can ‘attract atomic waves’ to spy on Iran’s nuclear programme, the former chief-of-staff of the nation’s armed forces has claimed.

Hassan Firuzabadi, senior military advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he did not know the details of the cases, but that the West had often used tourists, scientists and environmentalists to spy on Iran.

Firuzabadi was responding to questions from local media on the recent arrest of environmentalists.

‘Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran to collect aid for Palestine,’ he said.

‘We were suspicious of the route they chose. In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards.

‘We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities,’ he added.

I wonder if these ray reflecting lizards have the same rays as the ones that radiate from women’s hair so that they must wear hijabs?

But Islamists sure are paranoid about animals spying on them?

Last month, Hamas claimed that it had captured an Israeli “spy dolphin” off the coast of Gaza after it was caught engaging in “suspicious movements”. I’m not sure what those are, but then I’m not a meth-smoking Koran-reading Islamic Supremacist terrorist leader trying to find another press release to email off to Al Jazeera.

February 1st was the fifth World Hijab Day. Hijab is the Muslim headscarf that the media continually mischaracterize as merely a symbol of modesty in Islam. World Hijab Day was founded by New York activist Nazma Khanin in 2013 and is now celebrated in 140 countries. The stated goal is to foster religious tolerance and understanding by encouraging women of all religions to wear and experience hijab for one day. Put on a pretty head scarf and you too can enter a popular victim class. If you are really lucky you may be harassed and enjoy the full discrimination experience. Ironically, many of the same feminists who wore pussy hats at the Women’s March put on head scarves to stand in solidarity with their Muslim sisters. One month these feminist fashionistas are dressing up like giant vaginas and the next month celebrating their modesty. It would be much less confusing if these women would stop using headwear to symbolize their political positions. It makes you worry what else is in their clothes closet.

A few days later Macy’s announced a new clothing line for Muslim women making them the first major department store in the U.S. to sell hijabs. This is part of a new trend called Haute Hijab to glamorize and normalize the covering of women. In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Sonia Ossorio, President of the New York City chapter of the National Organization for Women, said that hijab was a symbol of empowerment and resistance against Donald Trump. Her statement was in reference to women who never wore hijab before who decided to wear it in protest of the travel ban. While deluded Western feminists are embracing the most recognizable symbol of institutional oppression, women in Iran are risking their lives waving and burning their head coverings in protest against the state-mandated law.

Sonia Ossorio and other so-called feminists interpret the wearing of hijab from their own cultural perspective as if all women wear it of their own free will. They do not understand that one of the fundamental reasons that women must be covered is that modesty is intrinsically intertwined with Islamic concepts of purity, honor and shame. These feminist fashionistas do not realize that no matter how pretty the hijab head scarf, it is essentially a prison uniform. It is used as a shaming mechanism to make women think their own bodies are the cause of male sexual urges, that they are a dirty impure unclean gender who must be hidden, cloistered, secluded and segregated so they do not entice or contaminate the community of men.

Who is Kim Yo Jong ? “ Kim Jong Un’s sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics,” declared a CNN.com headline. This princess of Pyongyang received a royal welcome from South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in. He seated her in his VIP box, near Vice President Mike Pence, for the opening ceremony. He hosted her for lunch at the presidential Blue House, where she delivered him an invitation for a summit with Mr. Kim. The resulting Reuters headline: “North Korea heading for diplomacy gold medal at the Olympics.”

Missing from most of the media coverage was any detail about Ms. Kim’s day job in Pyongyang. In North Korea this kid sister has served under Big Brother as a deputy director of the powerful and omnipresent Propaganda and Agitation Department. She has apparently racked up a record so stellar that last year the U.S. Treasury blacklisted her as a top North Korean official tied to “notorious abuses of human rights.” Mr. Kim gave her an alternate seat on his politburo.

In blacklisting Ms. Kim, the Treasury specified that her department “controls all media in the country, which the government uses to control the public.” That’s an understatement. The Propaganda and Agitation Department’s mission is to control not only media but minds—to indoctrinate all North Koreans, at all levels, in the absolute supremacy of Kim Jong Un and his Workers’ Party. CONTINUE AT SITE

Recently, the Turks complained about the January 31, 2017 Washington placement of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, on a terror watch blacklist. Ankara has supported Hamas substantially for years now, especially since the increasingly dictatorial Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) gained ascendency in the second decade of this century.

Increasingly, with the turmoil and chaos in adjacent Syria and Iraq, the Turks appear to have visions of at least partially recreating the borders of the former Ottoman Turkish Empire. Absent Washington and Moscow’s involvement, this might already have been a done deal by now, with the centuries old rivalry between the Ottomans and Iran’s Safavid and Qajar Shahs over the region at play. Of course, Russia’s involvement here is also nothing new—both in pre-Soviet and post-Soviet days. Moscow was non-discriminatory when expanding its own imperial borders via those of the other two players.

While the AKP claims that it’s not really “Islamist,” Erdogan & Co. certainly have an affinity for at least some militant, fundamentalist Islamist groups—including ISIS and Hamas. It’s no accident that the border has been fluid for ISIS fighters moving between Turkey and Syria.

Since I began by relaying Ankara’s support for a group dedicated to the slaughter of Jews and their sole, resurrected, minuscule nation (note: geographically, thirty-eight Israels fit into Turkey; Israel’s population is about 1/11 its size with about the same 20% mix of Arabs to Jews as Turkey’s 20-25% Kurds to Turks), from here onwards my concern will not be about such things as why or how modern Turkey transformed from Mustafa Kemal’s (“Ataturk”) post-World War I’s secular state to one closely aligned with religiously-motivated extremist groups. Instead, I will concentrate on a comparison between what Ankara faces regarding its own real or perceived threats and how Israel has handled what is, in reality, a far worse situation.

The overall objective of President Macron’s plan is to ensure that French law takes precedence over Islamic law for Muslims living in the country.

The plan, as currently conceived, is vague and short on details, but appears to involve three broad pillars: determining who will represent Muslims in France; delineating how Islam in France will be financed; and defining how imams in France will be trained.

“It is time to bring in a new generation. We have seen fifteen years of debate to defend the interests of foreign states.” — Hakim el-Karoui, a French-Tunisian expert on Islam who is advising Macron on the reforms.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a declared effort to “fight fundamentalism” and “preserve national cohesion,” has promised to “lay the groundwork for the entire reorganization of Islam in France.”

According to Macron, the plan, similar in ambition to Austria’s Islam Law, is aimed at seeking to “better integrate” Islam in France in order to “place it in a more peaceful relationship with the state.”

A key priority is to reduce outside interference by restricting foreign funding for mosques, imams and Muslim organizations in France. The plan’s overall objective is to ensure that French law takes precedence over Islamic law for Muslims living in the country.

In a February 11 interview with the Journal du Dimanche, Macron said that the plan, which is being coordinated by the Interior Ministry, will be announced within the next six months: “We are working on the structuring of Islam in France and also on how to explain it,” Macron said. “My goal is to rediscover what lies at the heart of secularism—the possibility of being able to believe as well as not to believe—in order to preserve national cohesion and the possibility of having free religious conscience.”

Since the failed coup in August 2016, the government says, it has purged more than 107,000 government employees for alleged links to the coup attempt. Worse, according to a Supreme Court justice, the Turkish government is investigating a total of 6.9 million citizens, or about 8.6% of all Turks.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has warned international companies drilling for oil and gas off Cyprus that these hydrocarbons are within Turkey’s continental shelf. Cavusoglu said that Turkey “is prepared to take all necessary measures” to protect its rights, and those of the Turkish Cypriots, in the eastern Mediterranean.

On January 26, several thousand Turkish Cypriots marched against what they say is Turkey’s unwanted influence. Protesters braved pounding rain to voice their opposition to Turkey’s agitation of “fascist and extremist” segments of their society.

Erdogan’s Turkey apparently has an ideological incompatibility with the word “peace.” This outright bullying can target any nation at any time. Optimists who think it might fade away will be proven wrong once again.

In official language, Turkey is in a state of emergency ever since a failed putsch, allegedly masterminded by a self-exiled cleric, killed nearly 250 people on the evening of July 15, 2016. Since then, the government says, it has purged more than 107,000 government employees for alleged links to the coup attempt. Worse, according to a Supreme Court justice, the Turkish government is investigating a total of 6.9 million citizens, or about 8.6% of all Turks.

Even “not-warmongering” can be associated with being a terrorist. More than 300 activists were arrested for their opposition to Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria. That number did not include the 11 doctors who are members of the Turkish Medical Association who were arrested for calling for a halt to the offensive. (They were later released but will stand trial). In addition, Turkey has asked Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to remove posts on the military offensive.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson began his show Monday evening by slamming the U.S. media’s unseemly crush on North Korean official Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong-un. The 30-year-old Jong is deputy director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department and a member of the North Korean politburo.

Media outlets over the weekend proclaimed that she “stole the show” at the Olympics and won the diplomatic gold medal. The Washington Post dubbed her “the Ivanka Trump of North Korea.”

Carlson argued that progressives have had a long history of supporting the world’s most repressive regimes and invited a member of the Communist Party in America to help him prove his point.

Deirdre Griswold, editor of the newspaper for the Workers World Party, came to the show armed with anti-war talking points, which is what she pushed no matter what Tucker asked her.

Griswold began by telling Carlson that she’s been to both North and South Korea and wanted to let the Foxe News viewers know that neither country wants war with the United States.

“We’re in the process of moving towards a nuclear war,” she declared. “The Korean people know very much what war is like and they’re not for it!”

Tucker tried to get the avowed communist to tell him which Korea she preferred, North or South, because she’d been to both countries.

“One is obviously the world’s last Stalinist regime,” Tucker noted. “It’s pretty rigidly Marxist — that’s North Korea. South Korea is floridly capitalist. It’s a market-based economy, which, of course, you reject. Which country would you rather live in personally?” he quizzed her.

But Griswold didn’t want to “debate” that issue because she had “really important” anti-war talking points that she needed to keep talking about.

When Carlson argued that North Korea is a closed country, she retorted that North Koreans know a lot more than Americans think, and cited their alleged 100 percent literacy rate as evidence.

Tucker pointed out that they “can’t read anything but the propaganda,” but Griswold was too busy reciting her anti-war, anti-American talking points to respond. She argued that the North Koreans were not “prisoners” in their own country. They just want to get out from under the threat of war imposed on them by the United States.

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