OREGON STANDOFF:  FEDS CLAIM 'OUTRAGEOUS DEMANDS' FROM RYAN BUNDY, INJURED WHEN LAVOY FINICUM WAS KILLED

Ryan Bundy was a passenger in the pickup truck driven by LaVoy Finicum and after Finicum was killed, Bundy was arrested and taken to a local hospital for an x-ray,    The x-ray revealed shrapnel in his shoulder, shrapnel that Ryan Bundy decided to hold onto as evidence of what happened to him.

It is strongly believed that his injury came at the hands of FBI Agent W. Joseph Astarita, set to go on trial for lying about shooting just before Oregon State Police gunned LaVoy Finicum down.

Assistant US Attorney Paul Maloney says that the government is willing to pay for surgery to remove the shrapnel as possible evidence but that "Ryan Bundy has refused multiple requests that he consent to undergo surgery (at the government's expense) in order to remove the metal fragment from his body, unless the government meets a number of outrageous demands".

The Portland Oregonian/OregonLive quotes Ryan Bundy as saying "if they want it, they can buy it from me".

The pretrial wrangling is underway ahead of FBI agent Astarita's trial scheduled to start July 24th.

On May 21st US District Judge Robert E. Jones will hear arguments from the prosecution and defense lawyers over a 3-D animation of Astarita's shooting created by Oregon authorities.

Astarita's lawyers contend the FBI shooting team that investigated in February 2016 couldn't determine whether Astarita fired any shots that day contradicting what Oregon authorities discovered in their investigation.

Why did the FBI send their shooting team with the Oregon authorities already working the matter?

Covering the tracks of Astarita?

Representatives of the Oregon shooting team ended up going to FBI headquarters and meeting with none other than the former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to press their case about Astarita and his fellow agents at the scene lying about the shooting.

Their efforts led to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General investigating and the charges against W. Joseph Astarita only in connection with the case and only for lying about his shooting.

Link below.........

"OregonLive" Pretrial Story 4/26/2018

(MORE TO COME)

OREGON STANDOFF:  NEW INFORMATION LEADS TO AMENDMENT OF DEATH SUIT FROM LAVOY FINICUM'S FAMILY

"269.    The FBI, OSP and other defendants have publicly defended the deliberate ambush and murder of LaVoy on January 26, 2016, by alleging that after he exited the vehicle, and after he had been shot with at least five lethal rounds (as well as unknown number of non-lethal rounds), and after he had repeatedly placed his hands on top of his head in a surrender position; that he appeared to be reaching into his jacket."

Amended lawsuit of LaVoy Finicum's family 4/24/2018

The pretrial releases of grand jury testimony in the case of FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita, charged with lying about shots he fired right before LaVoy Finicum was killed, has led to an amended wrongful death lawsuit filing this week by LaVoy Finicum's family.

The 67-page amended lawsuit points to Agent Astarita deliberately firing at LaVoy Finicum when he exited the truck.  It also notes that no firearm was discovered on LaVoy's person until 8 and a half hours after he was shot and killed (1:12AM the next day) suggesting it may have been planted on his person after he was killed.

An Oregon State Police detective spoke with Astarita for an "initial interview" hours after LaVoy was killed.

This is how "OregonLive" reported the interview based on the grand jury transcripts obtained by Oregon mainstream media:

"In Astartia"s initial interview with Oregon State Police Detective Scott Hill on the day of the shooting,  Astarita said he saw Finicum's truck almost hit his colleague and friend, J.N. Astarita told the detective that Finicum had clear intentions to run over the officer, was uncooperative and verbally combative, according to Hill's report."

Maxine Bernstein "OregonLive" story 4/20/2018

Astarita had been questioned by a supervisor earlier about firing any shots and his answer was: "Hey man, you don't got to ask me that Bro."

The amended complaint points to the roadblock being placed deliberately in a place that was unsafe instead of in a safer place like Route 395 further north in Grant County because that would have placed the operation under the jurisdiction of Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, who had talked to and expressed sympathy for the Oregon Standoff protesters.

Also noted in the amended suit is the new information about the FBI asking the Oregon State Police not to wear body cams.  What would three troopers cameras pointing at LaVoy from different angles have shown us and how would their presence have affected law enforcement behavior?

Link below.........

Amended Finicum Family Lawsuit 4/24/2018

(MORE TO COME)

OREGON STANDOFF:  NEW LIGHT SHED ON  LAVOY FINICUM KILLING WITH GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS OF FBI AGENT CASE

Mainstream media organizations in Oregon have obtained transcripts of the grand jury testimony that led to charges against FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita for lying about shots he fired just before Oregon State Police troopers killed LaVoy Finicum on January 26, 2016

It turns out that the FBI sent out its own Shooting Incident Review Team in February 2016 that was unable to determine if Astaria or the other FBI agents at the scene fired any shots.

But the Oregon shooting team led by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office along with the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General and the US Attorney's Office in Portland did determine that it was Astarita who fired two unaccounted for shots with missing shell casings.

Defense lawyers for Astarita intend to create doubt with the jury about the veracity of the Oregon shooting investigation at the trial scheduled to begin July 24th.

The transcripts identify the FBI agents who worked with Astarita with their initials like "B.M." and "M.F." and show how Oregon investigators felt the agents as a group were hiding something when they were questioned about what happened.

"Finicum crashed into a snowbank on the side of the road and stepped out his hands in the air.

Passenger Shawna Cox's video showed a small red dot on Finicum's left shoulder as he exited the truck.  At the same time Finicum yelled  'Go ahead and shoot me', two shots can be heard on Cox's video, according to a summary report from the FBI's Shooting Incident Response Team.

The first shot hit the roof of Finicum's truck and a second missed.  Deschutes County sheriff's detectives, assigned to investigate what happened, traced the trajectory of the bullet that struck the roof to a spot where Astarita, agent B.M. and one state trooper were standing, according to court documents.

In front of a grand jury, a prosecutor asked B.M. if he heard gunshots when Finicum got out of his truck.  B.M. was Astarita's immediate supervisor on the Hostage Rescue Team's blue squad.

'No I do not recall hearing shots fired at that time' B.M. said.  He was standing behind Astarita and said he was wearing a noise-dampening headset."

Maxine Bernstein "OregonLive" story 4/20/2018

It is believed that one of the two shots fired ended up wounding Ryan Bundy, one of the passengers in Finicum's pickup truck.  Bundy is still carrying the shrapnel that was detected in an x-ray taken at a local hospital shortly afterwards on January 26, 2016.

.


Link below........


Maxine Bernstein "OregonLive" Story 4/20/2018


(MORE TO COME)

SYRIA:  CONGRESSMAN SEES 'ZERO REAL EVIDENCE' FROM TOP OFFICIALS OF 'GAS ATTACK'

"In briefing to Congress, DNI, SecDef, and SecState provided zero real evidence.

Referenced into circulating online.   Which means either they chose not to provide proof to Congress or they don't have conclusive proof that Assad carried out gas attack.   Either way, not good"

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) tweet April 19, 2018

Congressman Thomas Massie was briefed by the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense and the acting Secretary of State regarding Syria and the alleged gas attack there.

Massie said the only evidence they referred to was the video evidence circulating online of "victims" being treated in the alleged attack.    This is the kind of video repeatedly circulated by jihadists of alleged attacks in recent years during Syria's civil war.

Congressman Massie is an outspoken maverick in the House.   He was one of only a handful of GOP House members who refused to vote for Paul Ryan as Speaker.   Massie has consistently criticized the fake conservative-constitutional legislation churned out by the Republican controlled House.

Link below......


US REP THOMAS MASSIE TWITTER

(EDITED EXPANDED EARLY SATURDAY)

SYRIA UPDATE:  PETER HITCHENS REFLECTIONS WITH A WARNING ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF WAR

Peter Hitchens has weighed in with some reflections on the Syrian situation following the alleged 'chemical attack' and the limited military action that followed it.

"The following story appeared in the Mail on 15th April:

'A FORMER head of Britain's Special Forces has challenged Theresa May's claim that President Assad was behind the chemical attack in Douma.

'Major General Jonathan Shaw said:  "Why would Assad use chemical weapons at this time?  He's won the war.  That's not just my opinion, it is shared by senior commanders in the US military.  There is no rationale behind Assad's involvement whatsoever.'"

Hitchens also lays out the "Iran versus Israel" angle of Syria.

"Israel (in my view wholly mistakenly) is preoccupied almost beyond reason with an alleged threat from Iran, and this has brought Jerusalem into a sort of informal alliance, with of all people, Saudi Arabia.   It has also done great damage to what until recently, was one of the most fascinating diplomatic rapprochments in modern history, the remarkably warm friendship between Moscow and Jerusalem, much encouraged by Vladimir Putin.  But last week's Israeli attack on the Iranians in Syria greatly annoyed the Kremlin, which values its close ties with Teheran."

It is at the conclusion of his blog post that Hitchens expresses his gravest concerns about US-UK policy in the last 15 years and where a new war in the Middle East would lead.

"The paradox of this is that the USA is acting for a global ideal, is genuinely persuaded that its interventions in this area are aimed at some sort of common good.  I suspect they are intended to eliminate the (undoubtedly nasty) Iranian regime.   Well, the Iraq war was aimed at the elimination of the undoubtedly nasty Saddam Hussein (And look where that got us).   Saddam was indeed eliminated, but at a price we are still paying.  Likewise the undoubtedly nasty Gadaffi was eliminated in Libya.  But his replacements were no nicer.   And the ultimate price of both these things together, the unprecedented movement of people in search of better safer lives which they created, will probably be the continued maintenance of Europe as a post-Christian pluralist continent.

So the USA's interests, and those of the people of the fast-declining western world, are not served by this belligerence.   A major war in the Middle East, one with more danger of going nuclear than any in modern times and one which will quite possibly spread to Europe, will end with only one victor, China, just as the USA was the great beneficiary of Britain's and France's attempts to maintain their dying greatness a century ago.  And China watches, interested and amazed at our folly, as we talk ourselves into this."

Peter Hitchens sobering reflections on the rush to judgement and military action in Syria.

Link below with the full blog post..........

PETER HITCHENS BLOG POST 4/18/2018

(MORE TO COME)

BUNKERVILLE-OREGON STANDOFF:  BUNDYS SPEAK FOR LAND RIGHTS IN THE WEST THIS WEEKEND

Ammon Bundy is a featured speaker at the "Range Rights and Resource Symposium: Farmers Feed the World" being held Friday and Saturday in Modesto, California.

Organizers of the event say "We're taking a look at the issues which impact Americans from our food, our water to government overreach.

Meanwhile his brother Ryan Bundy, who's running as an independent candidate for Governor of Nevada, speaks Friday evening at the "Patch of Heaven" religious camp in Amargosa Valley, Nevada.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service diverted a stream away from the private land and is threatening the future of the camp.

The federal government policies appear not to have changed since Ryan Zinke took over as Interior Secretary.

"The Wall Street Journal" reported several weeks ago that the cowboys are losing in the West.

As I've posted earlier, Zinke has met with anti-farmer rancher environmentalists and the "Wall Street Journal" reports that both environmentalists and the recreation industry are pushing the farmers-ranchers out of business with federal government power.

Links below:

Farmers Feed The World 

Saving the Patch of Heaven

SYRIA UPDATE:  ONE AMERICA NEWS NETWORK FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF CHEMICAL ATTACK IN DOUMA

"I asked them how they felt about the 'moderate rebels' that they were living under and they said 'there's no such thing as moderate rebels'.   They said that the people they were living under were starving them to death....they hoarded the medicine and took everything for themselves.....if anyone complained you were risking your life, they'd kill you, they'd kill you and your family for complaining or raising any problems....."

"One America News Network" reporter Pearson Sharp reports on his visit to Douma, Syria after it was taken back by the Syrian government from "The Army of Islam" rebels who held it

Robert Fisk wasn't the only reporter to visit Douma, Syria on Monday.  A reporter for the "One America News Network" had the opportunity to go around and ask questions and look for evidence of the "chemical attack" alleged to have occurred April 7th.

Here are some more excerpts of the report:

"It was that square..... the terrorists claim was hit by the chemicals and so I walked around it.  I looked at everything.   There was some mortars that had exploded in the concrete.  But nothing looked like a chemical attack and when I asked the people there.  There were soliders there.  There were military police there.

They said they'd been stationed there for awhile and they hadn't seen anything that day.  They did point out to me that there was a hospital nearby, right off the square actually that had a basement like two or three stories underground where there was an emergency field hospital used by the terrorists to treat their wounded........"

".......there are still doctors there taking care of people but now those doctors are working for the govvernment instead of working for Jaish el Islam.......I spoke to one of the doctors in training and he was on staff on duty at the time of the attack, that day.   I asked him what he saw that day and he told me that it was a routine day for him.  It was very dusty that day.  A lot of people were coming in coughing just irritation in the throat......

........While they were going about their rounds suddenly out of nowhere a bunch of strangers burst into the room screaming that there was a chemical attack and they started hosing.   They brought in allegedly victims and they started hosing them down with water.   And so the doctors, they freaked out and grabbed hoses and started helping and stuff.

And the strangers who brought in the victims were videotaping everything......and as soon as they had washed everybody off and stuff they packed up and they left and that was the end of it......they didn't see any indication that there was a chemical attack.... the people that came in looked totally normal........"

The full report is at the link below......

ONE AMERICA NEWS NETWORK REPORT ON SYRIA 4/16/2018

SYRIA UPDATE:   VETERAN JOURNALIST REPORTS  FROM 'CHEMICAL ATTACK' SITE WITH CONFLICTING INFO

Robert Fisk of the British "Independent" newpaper, a veteran of decades of reporting from the Middle East, made it to Douma, Syria and has sent back his report from there.

"This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks-and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world's most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week. There's even a friendly doctor in a green coat who, when I track him down in the very same clinic, cheerfully tells me that the "gas" videotape which horrified the world-despite all the doubters-is perfectly genuine......"

But Fisk goes on to explain what the doctor added to that.

".......the patients, he says, were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish filled tunnels and basements in which they live, on  a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm....."

The doctor, Assim Rahaibini, had more to say according to Fisk.

"he refers twice to the jihadi gunmen of Jaish el-Islam (the Army of Islam) in Douma as 'terrorists'-the regime's word for their enemies, and a term used by many people across Syria. Am I hearing this right?   Which version of events are we to believe?......"

Fisk is reporting that the inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are being prevented from getting to Douma 'ostensibly because they lacked the correct UN permits'.

Here's more of what he had to say about the situation in Douma following its retaking by Syrian government forces and their allies.

"There are many people I talked to amid the ruins of the town who said they had 'never believed in' gas stories-which were usually put about, they claimed, by the armed Islamist groups.  These particular jihadis survived under a blizzard of shellfire by living in other people's homes and in vast, wide underground roads carved through the living rock by prisoners with pick-axes on three levels beneath the town......"

"I walked across this town quite freely yesterday without soldier, policeman or minder to haunt my footsteps, just two Syrian friends, a camera and a notebook.  I sometimes had to clamber across 20-foot ramparts, up and down almost sheer walls of earth.   Happy to see foreigners among them, happier still that the siege is finally over,  they are mostly smiling, those whose faces you can see, of course, because a surprising number of Douma's women wear a full-length black hijab....."

There you have the story of what its like to be occupied by the 'rebels' in Syria.   Its like an Islamic state with women covered up and hidden.  All those gas attack videos feature young men carrying children, not women.

Talk about "Animal Assad" or "Monster Assad" all you want but there is your alternative that you would help with military action against Assad's government and his Iranian and Russian allies.

Link below with must reading to more fully understand Syria......

Robert Fisk Report From Syria-"The Independent" 4/17/2018

(EDITED AND EXPANDED TUESDAY AM)

NEW DETAILS EMERGE ON LAVOY FINICUM KILLING FROM DOCUMENTS IN FBI AGENT CASE

"So the count for shell casings--I'll recap that  Officer 1 the trooper shoots three times as the truck is approaching.  Then there are two non trib shots as LaVoy Finicum gets out of his vehicle.   One strikes the top of the truck--that's the bullet hole in the top of the truck--and then Officer 1 shoots LaVoy Finicum twice, and Officer 2  shoots him one for a total of eight rounds...."

Grand Jury testimony  from Special Agent Russ Cunningham-DOJ Office of Inspector General in FBI Agent Astarita case January 26, 2017

The defense in the case of FBI Hostage Rescue team Special Agent W. Joseph Astarita has released government documents as they try to debunk the Oregon shooting investigation that points to Astarita taking two shots at LaVoy Finicum's truck as he went into the snow at a roadblock on January 26, 2016.

One document is the grand jury testimony of Special Agent Russ Cunningham, from the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General.

Cunningham revealed that two Oregon State Troopers fired at LaVoy Finicum when he was killed.  There were three shots total with two from one trooper and one from the other.

"Officer 1 the trooper, he shoots him twice,, bang bang, and Officer 2 basically from the centerline down here shoots him once.  He's offscreen so you don't see the trooper"

DOJ Office of Inspector General Special Agent Russ Cunningham grand jury testimony 1/26/2017 describing what is on video

A third trooper was opting to use a taser on Finicum when the other two opted to open fire according to Cunningham's testimony.

"The guy up in the woods line is Officer 3.  He was going to hit him with a Taser, but as he turned and reached for his gun they decided to shoot him"

DOJ Office of Inspector General Special Agent Russ Cunningham grand jury testimony 1/26/2017 describing what is on video

Cunningham also explained to the grand jury the use of flash bang rounds designed to shatter windows on vehicles in connection with the other shots fired.

He also described the operation that killed Finicum as FBI led and intended to arrest people in the pickup truck.

Astarita's team of defense lawyers are trying to discredit the Oregon shooting team investigation to exonerate him.

FBI Special Agent Astarita is charged with three counts of perjury and two of obstruction of justice.

There are no charges against him for killing Finicum or injuring Ryan Bundy, who still has shrapnel inside him after being injured during the shooting, apparently from Astarita's gun.

A pretrial hearing is set for May 21st in Portland with the trial set to start July 24th.

Link below:

TRANSCRIPT OF SPECIAL AGENT CUNNINGHAM TESTIMONY TO FBI AGENT ASTARITA GRAND JURY

SYRIA UPDATE: EXPLOSIONS SOUTH OF ALEPPO, IRANIAN BASE SAID TO BE TARGETED BY 'UNKNOWN AIRCRAFT'

News reports and the Israeli "DEBKAfile" website reported explosions near Aleppo late Saturday night.   

"DEBKAfile" reported the explosions at an Iranian base.

Reuters quoted the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights", a British based monitoring group supporting opposition forces in Syria, reporting a single "huge blast" in a rural area south of Aleppo.

Turkish TV channel CNN Turk reported that a single huge explosion shook an "Iranian training camp" and that a source there spoke of 20 dead in the blast.

"DEBKAfile" also published the notion of "unconfirmed reports" of  "unknown aircraft" in the area.

Another Israeli operation in the mix of other military actions?   Last Sunday night 2 Israeli F-15's fired eight missiles at an Iranian base in the Homs area.

A pro-Syrian govermment Twitter feed tonight says the explosions were triggered by engineering units detonating mines and IED's.

Footage circulated online is said to be old March 19th footage according to the "Within Syria" blog Twitter feed.


Links below........

DEBKAFILE REPORT 4/14/2018

'WITHIN SYRIA' TWITTER FEED

SYRIA UPDATE:  RUSSIA CALLS FOR UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, ISRAEL DECLARES NO FLY ZONE IN GOLAN

"Russia strongly condemns the attack on Syria where Russian servicemen are helping the legitimite government in the war on terrorism"

Russian President Vladimir Putin 4/14/2018

Russia is calling for a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the attacks in Syria last night.

Russians brought flowers to the Syrian Embassy in Moscow today.

Israel, meanwhile, apparently fearing Iranian retaliation from Syria, has declared a No Fly Zone in the Golan region.  How this might exacerbate tensions in  the region remains to be seen.

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CONDEMNS ATTACK ON SYRIA BLAMING MAINSTREAM MEDIA FOR INCITEMENT

OTHER LATE NEWS FROM SYRIA BELOW.......

(THIS WAS PUBLISHED BY RUSSIA TODAY)

"Damascus has come under attack by the US, France and the UK at a time when Syria is returning to a peaceful life, after battling a terrorist aggression for years, Russia's foreign ministry said, as it condemned the attack.

'First, the Syrian people was subjected to Arab Spring, then Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL) not to "smart" American missiles.  A strike was carried out on the capital of a sovereign state, which for many years has been trying to survive under the threat of terror', Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

She blamed 'all those who claim moral leadership in this world, who declare their exceptionalism' for the attack, noting that 'you should really be exceptional' to attack Syria at a time 'when it was given a chance for a peaceful future.'

Zakharova also accused the American and mainstream media of inciting the attack, noting that the White House's decision to launch a strike was based on media reports, photo and video shared on the internet and spread online....."

More at link below:

RT STORY ON RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY REACTION

The Syrian news agency claims that all British missiles ("Storm Shadow")  fired at an ammunition depot east of Homs were "jammed" and shot down.  The report says three civilians were injured.

The Pentagon will reportedly have more to say on the accuracy of US missile strikes tomorrow.

Syria claims to have shot down 13 missiles.

Six Syrian soldiers were also reported injured.

Syrian State TV claimed the attack did not achieve its goal because missiles were either intercepted or diverted.

SYRIA UPDATE:  OSAMA BIN LADEN'S BRAND OF ISLAM IS BETTER THAN THE AYATOLLAH KHOMENI'S

Follow the money and since 1945 the Untied States has followed the money to Saudi Arabia.

After he handed the keys to Eastern Europe to Joseph Stalin and Communism at Yalta, President Franklin Roosevelt met the Saudi king on a warship anchored in a Saudi port and the longterm Uniparty relationship between the USA and the House of Saud was sealed.

When Saddam Hussein threatened in 1990, the US military and the military of other nations arrived being paid by Kuwait, the Saudis and other Gulf Arab states for their military mission.   America fought its first war for Saudi Arabia.

Again in 2003 after the 9/11 attacks involving Saudi terrorists inspired and led by Saudi Osama Bin Laden, the United States launched a new war in Iraq ostensibly to take out Saddam Hussein because he had "weapons of mass destruction".   Something that wasn't proven.

But the the real reason seems so obvious, the Iraq War was another war fought for Saudi Arabia.

Much has happened since like street demonstrations in Iran in 2009, the "Arab Spring" revolts with Libya in 2011 followed quickly by the Syrian Civil War.

Jihadists funded by Saudi Arabia were prominent in both Libya and Syria.

In Libya then President Barack Obama authorized military force in conjunction with other nations to help the jihadists win.

When an allegation of chemical weapons use came up in Syria, Obama balked at military action.

Obama also showed a lack of urgency in showing up when the Saudi king died to join the mourning and was criticized for it.

The UK by the way lowered its flags to half-staff in honor of the Saudi king, living proof of how dependent the UK is on Saudi-Gulf Arab money.

I think more proof exists in the laws of the United Kingdom that cause police to arrest and jail people for expressing their views on Islam and to ban people from entering the country and also ban people from speaking who have the "wrong" views on Islam.

Saudi Arabia represents Sunni Islam with its Shia rival, Iran, stirring the pot against the US and Israel.

The Saudis do business with former directly and the latter indirectly.

The die is cast for the Western nations to again wage war in the interests of the Saudis, this time in Syria.

It was former President George W. Bush who made reference to Islam being a 'religion of peace' but what Bush was really trying to say was that the kind of Islam that comes from Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Wahabbi Islam, is the 'religion of peace'.

The Sunnis in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region have more money than the Shia Muslims in Iran and their money props financially weakened Western nations.


(EDITED AND EXPANDED WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY AM)

SYRIA BREAKING:  RUSSIA VETOES RESOLUTION FOR RIGGED MUELLER STYLE PROBE AND INVITES INDEPENDENT PROBE

Syria and Russia have invited a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to probe what happened last Saturday.

OPCW says a team will deploy shortly according to the BBC.

Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution for an investigation designed to pin blame on Syria's government and its allies and further justify any military action now being planned.

In short an investigation that treats Syria, Iran and Russia like Robert Mueller treats Donald Trump.

SYRIA UPDATE:  UN SECURITY COUNCIL VOTE, THEN THE MILITARY OPTION

Later today the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution that Russia will cast a "NO" vote on setting the stage for likely military action.

President Trump told reporters at the White House last evening that the United States was getting "good clarity" on who was responsible for what happened in Syria on Saturday.

Trump spoke of "Syria, Russia and Iran" in connection with the incident.

In February Trump spoke at a news conference with the then visiting Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

"what Russia and what Iran and what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace.  I will tell you that.   We're there for one reason, we're there to get ISIS and get rid of ISIS and go home.   We're not there for any other reason and we've largely accomplished our goal.   But what those three countries have done to people over the last short period of time is a disgrace....."

While President Trump has repeatedly denied any other purpose for the United States to be in Syria, any decision to act militarily would point to what Peter Hitchens has posted on his blog in the last 24 hours about the situation.

"Two major powers, Saudi Arabia and Iran, are irreconcilably hostile to each other.  One of them by aggressive diplomacy in proxy states, has created a state of grave tension between them which, if it goes much further, threatens to draw the great powers into open conflict.  A single incident, by providing the basis for aggressive diplomacy, unacceptable demands and perhaps actual warlike violence, could trigger that war.  If so, it will not be confined to the Middle East, because of the involvement of Russia in the dispute.  Indeed, it may be Russia's involvement in Syria, where it has frustrated Saudi Arabian designs and those of Saudi Arabia's allies, such as the USA, this country and France, which triggered the considerable increase in tension in Ukraine........"

President Trump visited Saudi Arabia last year, performing the "sword dance" with its leaders and receiving promises of Saudi investment in the United States and Saudi purchases of American weapons.

The Saudi Crown Prince met President Trump at the White House recently and toured the United States making financial deals along the way.

The United States relationship with Saudi Arabia goes back to 1945 and regardless of Saudi associated terrorist activities that culminated in the 9/11 attacks and the Saudi use of jihadist Al Qaeda fighters in Syria to achieve its aim of overthrowing the Assad regime, the close US-Saudi relationship is firm and solid and very much behind any decision President Trump is about to make and the consequences of that decision.

The Israeli propaganda-disinformation website "DEBKAfile" published a report today pointing to a long military campaign involving the US, UK, France and Arab countries aimed at driving Iran out of Syria.

President Trump spoke of the "best fighting force in the world" as he talked to reporters last evening at the White House, evoking memories of General George S. Patton speaking to soldiers training to go into battle during World War II.

SYRIA BREAKING:  THREE, TWO, ONE BOOM A NEW WAR FOR SAUDI ARABIA?

There have been many harsh critics of George W. Bush's actions in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 (9/11).

Most of the critics (including President Donald J. Trump) seem to miss the vital connection between the war in Iraq for instance and Saudi Arabia.

President Bush chose to fight the Iraq war really for the sake of Saudi security and the financial stability of nations like the US and UK, even then increasing in debt and financial vulnerability that needed the support of foreign money including Saudi and Gulf Arab money.

Fast forward to here and now.   President Trump did the sword dance with Saudi Arabia's royals when he visited last May.   The Saudi Crown Prince has been on a goodwill "I support Israel" etc. tour of the USA in recent weeks meeting with President Trump along with way.

The Saudis are backing Al Qaeda jihadist rebels in Syria who fight the Assad regime.

They are "moderates" meaning they do many of same things Islamic State does including keeping women as property, but they don't make videos of their atrocities.

What they do make videos of are false flag atrocities that they blame on Syria's government.

"Just bear in mind as you read the latest propaganda from Syria--always beautifully composed pictures of wounded children in the arms of gentle, unarmed young men-that the "rebels" and "activists" in the suburbs of Damascus are the people we used to call Al Qaeda.   That is, they are the ones who blew up the Twin Towers.  But Al Qaeda has now got some very good spin doctors, and they're trying to spin you.   I urge you to resist."

Peter Hitchens column  2/25/2018

In recent hours emotional statements have come from high places including the tweets of President Trump.

These emotional statements are nothing more and nothing less than the restatement of Al-Qaeda terrorist propaganda.         The Al Qaeda jihadists backed by Saudi Arabia in Syria

The United States is 20 trillion dollars in the hole.   The UK is in worse shape, Brexit or no Brexit.  The anti-Brexit forces no doubt include the Saudis.

Nations depend on the USA financially like Canada and above all Israel.

An Israel official close to PM  Netanyahu called for US military action in Syria today.

Follow Israel's money trail and it will end up in Saudi Arabia, too.

It is time for the moral fortitude and the spiritual strength to not be sucked in by the Sodomistic and Gommoraesque mob raging out there.

Russia was expecting this kind of incident for weeks but the enemies of Assad and Iran and Russia had to create an incident in England and put Russian fingerprints on it to grease the skids for this.

Now we understand the "Skripal incident' involving the 'nerve agent' better.

THE ASSASSINATION OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

"I have come to think of my role as one which operates outside the realm of partisan politics raising the issues and through action create the situation which forces whatever party is in power to act creatively and constructively in response to the dramatic presentations of these issues on the public scene...."

Dr. Martin Luther King expresses no interest in being a 1968 presidential candidate-April 25,  1967

I had watched the evening news on NBC ("The Huntley-Brinkley Report") and was aware that this person Martin Luther King was in Memphis getting himself involved in a garbage workers strike.

His dramatic April 3rd speech may have been part of the story I was watching., a speech that seemed to point to his death.

In the last presidential election year 1964 Dr. King had received an audio sex tape from the FBI obviously a message from the Democrats.   JFK's widow called King a "despicable man" and he was considered an enemy of the Kennedy's and the Democrat Party.

In recent days, the anti-Vietnam War movement that he was a part of had helped to bring down the incumbent Democrat President Lyndon Johnson.  Johnson had decided to drop out of the Democrat contest for President of the United States.

MLK probably sensed some sort of "payback" was coming but I won't indulge in conspiracy theories about his death.

There was a lot more that I didn't understand being only seven years old 50 years ago today Thursday April 4, 1968.

Television was the cutting edge of media back then dominated by over the air signals sometimes enhanced and spread hundreds of miles by translators and cable television.

Three major television networks were the dominant forces of the medium (NBC, CBS and ABC).

They were entertainment oriented enterprises with news filling small segments, sometimes extended by major events, but only during 1963's JFK Assassination had there been round the clock TV news.

Color was new in 1968.  In my home there was a color set but I watched most of my television on a monochrome (black and white set) in my bedroom.

NBC's local VHF station was the most powerful signal but I watched a lot of ABC programs on a UHF channel.  ABC aimed for younger audiences and on Thursday night's the "Batman" series was big viewing for me.

A I recall this Thursday it was just after 8pm Eastern when NBC interrupted the "Daniel Boone" series that I happened to be watching.

The "NBC News Special Report" slide was accompanied by an announcer saying that Dr. Martin Luther King had been shot and killed in Memphis.

King was shot just after 6pm in Memphis, 7pm in the East where I lived and there had been earlier interruptions to announce the shooting before his death on the various networks.

Television needed time to warm up studio cameras in 1968 and breaking news often was broadcast audio only with a slide on the screen.

The adults did not want to talk about the matter when I walked out of the bedroom.  They were fearful of the violence that was about to erupt, the worst racial violence of the 1960's.

This link below is of the CBS News coverage just after 9pm Eastern.

First part is the nationwide "Special Report" with Dan Rather from New York bringing in a live feed from Memphis.

Then the 930pm Eastern special re-edited "CBS Evening News" for 630pm broadcast on the West Coast broadcast from Washington with Walter Cronkite.

Cronkite was in DC to leave with President Johnson that night while Rather, the White House correspondent, was in New York having covered Johnson's activites there earlier in the day.

Link below.......

CBS News MLK Assassination Coverage

MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE BUNDY'S

"......I have come to think of my role as one which operates outside the realm of partisan politics raising the issues and through action create the situation which forces whatever party is in power to act creatively and constructively in response to the dramatic presentations of these issues on the public scene...."     

Dr. Martin Luther King-April 25, 1967 

"America is not happy with the Republicans, Americans are not happy with the Democrats"

Cliven Bundy speaks to the Independent American Party of Nevada convention 2/23/2018

Dr. Martin Luther King was clearly against the political leaders in general and Democrats in particular.    That audio recording of JFK's widow calling King a "despicable man" was no fluke.

JFK was preparing to "deal" with King in 1964 and it was absolutely no coincidence that early in that presidential election year an audio tape of Dr. King's encounter with two prostitutes was mailed to his home by the FBI.

MLK backed down on protest in 1964 but would move forward and eventually Dr. King would take on the new Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson with his opposition to the Vietnam War.

When asked about the notion of running for president himself in 1968, King backed away saying his role was outside the 'realm of partisan politics' as in Republicans and Democrats.

Upon release from prison earlier this year Cliven Bundy showed up to speak not at a Republican or Democrat event but at the convention of the Indpendent American Party of Nevada, the political party he said he was a member of.

His son Ryan is running for Governor of Nevada as an independent candidate, saying neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are helping ranchers get their land back from federal control and domination.

"Just as I say we aren't going to let any dogs or water hoses turn us around, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around"

Dr.  Martin Luther King-Last Speech April 3, 1968 

"in 1998 a federal judge issued a permanent injunction against Bundy"

"The Federalist"- April 17, 2014

"whatever it takes"

Cliven Bundy's pledge to act if the federal government tries to enforce that injunction again made in Las Vegas on January 10th, 2018

"...but somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly, somewhere I read of the freedom of speech, somewhere I read of the freedom of press, somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights....."

Martin Luther King-Last Speech April 3, 1968

The Bundy's have always been interested in rights for farmers and ranchers that are increasingly taken away from them.   The "Wall Street Journal" published a story March 30th about how the cowboys are losing (and that's with Republican Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior).  The feds are regulating to suit both environmentalists and the recreation industry crushing farmers and ranchers under their boots to please the special interests.

The Hammonds in Oregon ended up jailed as terrorists with five year mandatory sentence for just lighting a backfire to protect their land from a brushfire.

Republican Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is pushing regulations to create wildlife corridors that will crush farmers and ranchers more claiming its a "partnership" with the states.

The Bundy's say its time for states and localities to assume control of the land against federal encroahcment.   Encroachment that will continue regardless to anything Zinke says to the contrary.

"We  have a Constitution!  Good Heavens!  The battle's already been fought for us....

I grazed my cattle on county land, and I have no contract with the federal government for over 25 years.  That's why, when I go to court, I haven't been able to make this point, but someday I will:  I don't plea guilty, and I plea innocent.  I don't play no thing.  I don't recognize this court has any jurisdiction over my land that I graze cattle on, over my right, over my home.  So what I ask you to do today here is to act like Montanans.  Act like you have a county government.  Act like you understand the Constitution."

Cliven Bundy speaks at "Freedom and Prosperity" even in Paradise Montana 1/20/2018

The Bundy's were harrassed and roughed up by BLM agents who also employed snipers around Bundy Ranch in the spring of 2014.

Ammon Bundy was tazed,  Dave Bundy was arrested and roughed up with stones embedded into his face by the federal agents before they released him.


 They were joined for a time by FBI agents-snipers who brought along a surveillance camera they     used to monitor protests.

The threatening atmosphere caused the Bundy's to ask for help and people came to exercise their First Amendment rights and some people also came exercising their Second Amendment right.

(WORK IN PROGRESS CONTINUING)