Category Archives: Asia

COVID-19, Biological Warfare, China Related with Short Reference List

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Spychology, United States of America

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The report, written by the Chemical and Biological Intelligence Unit of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD), does not give the name of the Chinese scientist carrying the suspected SARS and MERS samples, or the intended recipient in the U.S. But the FBI concluded that the incident, and two other cases cited in the report, were part of an alarming pattern.

https://news.yahoo.com/suspected-sars-virus-and-flu-found-in-luggage-fbi-report-describes-chinas-biosecurity-risk-144526820.html

Whether in recent years or over many, there appears no end in relation to the breadth and depth of Chinese espionage in the United States. The cost to Americans: well into the billions of dollars.

Of immediate concern: could C19 (COVID-19) have escaped or even been ferried from the kind of lab that works with deadly pathogens?

According to a recent American Military News article (“Report: FBI warned of Chinese researchers transporting disease samples in US before coronavirus”, March 31, 2020 by Ryan Morgan), the FBI in 2018 had a least twice detained Chinese researchers transporting dangerous biological materials, and in 2019 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents had stopped a Chinese researcher ferrying E.coli out of Detroit.

As Dr. Antilla proceeded with his academic career, United States officials changed their view of China’s recruitment programs, which they say have been used to steal sensitive technology from American laboratories.

In 2019, the Department of Energy barred its personnel from participating in recruitment programs from a handful of countries, including China. A few months later, a Senate committee declared China’s recruitment programs a threat to American interests.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/chinas-lavish-funds-lured-us-scientists-what-did-it-get-in-return.html

Casually going somewhere with a load of infectious material or toxins in pockets? Well, it’s not the kind of thing staff would do, but spies?

BackChannels will not cover the waterfront on Chinese espionage in America. Walk in anywhere and the subject expands. From the recruitment of scholars through the Thousand Lights Program through serious computer hacking and human infiltration into every potentially strategic walk in America’s operations, civilian and defense, the threats posed by China’s theft of industrial, scientific, and state secrets looms large. Examples may be found in a few proper nouns easily searched up on the web —

Candace Marie Claiborne (CIA mole)
Charles M. Lieber (Alleged Concealment of Chinese Funding)
Honjin Tan (Energy Storage)
Jerry Chung Shing Lee (CIA mole)
Kevin Patrick Mallory (CIA mole)
Qingshan Li, Military Radio Equipment
Xudong Yao (Industrial Infrastructure)
Xueha Peng (State Secrets)
Xudong Yao (Industrial Infrastructure)
Yanqing Ye (Foreign Agent, Boston University, Physics, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering)
Zaosong Zheng (Cancer Research)

Related Online

Much of the reference section has been lifted from a previous post — “Note: COVID-19, Biological Warfare, and the Odds and Ambiguities” (March 19, 2020), but a few cogent others have been added to this growing collection of tributes to the theft of industrial, scientific, and state secrets by the People’s Republic of China on the world’s Internet-connected international stage.

Of course, where would any state’s security — or international agenda — be without its spies?

The trade is a fact of life also worldwide.

Nonetheless, this from Reuters provides a glimpse at the lucrative and powerful payoffs so far enjoyed by China given perhaps allowances for its investments (and recruitment) through the Thousand Light programs as well as an apparent absence of sufficient resistance to being intellectually tapped for the nation’s most sensitive scientific secrets.

China’s efforts to steal unclassified American technology, ranging from military secrets to medical research, have long been thought to be extensive and aggressive, but U.S. officials only launched a broad effort to stop alleged Chinese espionage in the United States in 2018.

“The theft of American trade secrets by China costs our nation anywhere from $300 to $600 billion in a year,” Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in advance of Thursday’s conference.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-china-espionage/top-u-s-officials-to-spotlight-chinese-spy-operations-pursuit-of-american-secrets-idUSL1N28S1B3

Ackerman, Todd. “MD Anderson ousts 3 scientists over concerns about Chinese conflict of interest.” Houston Chronicle, April 20, 2019.

AP. “Trump Disbanded NSC Pandemic Unit That Experts Had Praised.” The New York Times, March 14, 2020.

Arms Control Association. “Biological Weapons Convention Signatories and States-Parties.” September 2018.

Barry, Ellen and Gina Kolata. “China’s Lavish Funds Lured U.S. Scientists. What Did It Get in Return?” The New York Times, February 7, 2020.

Bender, Bryan and Megan Cassella. “Will Trump be able to get emergency medical supplies fast enough?” Politico, March 18, 2020.

BESA. “China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.” January 29, 2020.

Bocchi, Alessandra. “China’s Coronavirus Diplomacy: Rome praises Beijing’s ‘solidarity’ in sending ventilators, face masks, doctors and nurses.” WSJ Opinion, March 20, 2020.

Geraghty, Jim. “The Comprehensive Timeline of China’s COVID-19 Lies.” National Review, March 23, 2020.

Hosenball, Mark. “Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets.” Reuters, February 6, 2020.

Jaschik, Scott. “Chinese Med Student Charged with Stealing Research.” Inside Higher Ed, January 2, 2020.

Kolata, Gina. “Vast Dragnet Targets Theft of Biomedical Secrets for China.” The New York Times, November 4, 2019.

Lanese, Nicoletta. “Only one lab in China can safely handle the new coronavirus.” Live Science, January 22, 2020.

Lee, Bruce Y. “No, COVID-19 Coronavirus Was Not Bioengineered. Here’s The Research That Debunks That Idea.” Forbes, March 17, 2020.

Morgan, Ryan. “Report: FBI warned of Chinese researchers transporting disease samples in US before coronavirus.” American Military News, March 31, 2020.

Nedelman, Michael. “Scientists with ties to China ousted from US cancer center amid fears of foreign influence.” CNN, April 25, 2019.

Oppenheim, James S. “Note: COVID-19, Biological Warfare, and the Odds and Ambiguities.” BackChannels, March 19, 2020.

Pauls, Karen. “Canadian government scientist under investigation trained staff at Level 4 lab in China.” CBC, October 3, 2019.

Qiu, Jane. “How China’s “Bat Woman” Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus.” Scientific American, March 11, 2020.

Shoham, Dany (Lt. Col. res.). “China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.” The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, January 29, 2020.

The Conversation. “Why Singapore’s coronavirus response worked – and what we can all learn.” March 18, 2020.

Toosi, Nahal, Daniel Lippman, and Dan Diamond. “Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’.” Politico, March 16, 2020.

Tsan-Yuk Lam, Tommy and Marcus Ho-Hin Shum, Hua-Chen Zhu, et al. “Identification of 2019-nCoV related coronavirus in Malayan pangolins in southern China.” bioRxiv, February 13, 2020. This technical paper points to the Pangolin as a potential intermediate conveyor of COVID-19 between bats and humans.

Vorndick, Wilson. “Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military is Preparing for a ‘New Domain of Warfare’.” Defense One, August 14, 2019.

Weinberger, Sharon, Jana Winter and Martin De Bourmont. “Suspected SARS virus and flu samples found in luggage: FBI report describes China’s ‘biosecurity risk’.” Yahoo News, March 30, 2020.

War is Boring. “Chinese ‘student’ studying in US is indicted for actually being a Chinese Army officer.” January 29, 2020.

Wikipedia. “Biosafety Level”.

Wikipedia. “Pangolin“.

Wikipedia. “Thousand Talents Plan”.

Wikipedia. “Wuhan Institute of Virology”.

World Health Organization. “Fact Sheet: Biosafety and Biosecurity.” PDF. March 20, 2018.

Zaveri, Mihir. “Wary of Chinese Espionage, Houston Cancer Center Chose to Fire 3 Scientists.” The New York Times, April 22, 2019.

Poster Source: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/yanqing-ye | PDF Readable Location: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/yanqing-ye/@@download.pdf

–33–

Ai Fen, Chinese Authorities, and the Shame of Hiding Shame

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, Political Psychology, Psychology

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While C19 moves around the world, the sudden disappearance of Chinese whistle blower Dr. Ai Fen has been moving across the World Wide Web as well.

Carr, Jemma. “Wuhan doctor who was among the first to alert other medics to the spread of coronavirus ‘goes missing’ amid fears she has been detained for speaking out.” Daily Mail, April 1, 2020.

From the Awesome Conversation

What are China’s authorities hiding or trying to hide?

It’s remarkable watching the hiding of shame (or guilt) play out on the global stage.

There are people who believe — and when they’re leaders, they may be the worst of people — that any show of damage, fear, or sentiment weakens them in relation to public perception when, in fact, it is their own “inner eye” (the way the may be forced to view themselves) that cannot stand being seen as weak. In that may be the soul of “malignant narcissism” and related “civilizational narcissism”.

Such types embarrass and shame themselves, for what seems right to them looks wrong to everyone else.

Dogma may no longer serve to cover or excuse less savory designs.

Our species evolves not only physically but psychologically, and we have reached an age with sufficient global and open communications in which authoritarians, criminals, and dictators may no longer brush aside or suppress essentially truthful criticism and data. The same may not stop “black programs” and conversations “behind the curtains” — that kind of feudal and medieval egotism and power may be always with us — but by and large BackChannels believes the world evolves toward greater complexity, interdependence, and freedom. The global public may still be misled, but not for long provided the journalists have integrity and do their work.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2020/03/19/note-covid-19-biological-warfare-and-the-odds-and-ambiguities/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/civilizational-narcissism/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/malignant-narcissism/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/paranoid-delusional-narcissistic-reflection-of-motivation/

Perspective: Related Online and With the Truth About COVID-19 in the United States

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged =85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged =19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Annual Rate of Death for the United States of America

Number of deaths: 2,813,503
Death rate: 863.8 deaths per 100,000 population
Life expectancy: 78.6 years
Infant Mortality rate: 5.79 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 647,457
Cancer: 599,108
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
Diabetes: 83,564
Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Between the people of the United States and the nation’s most prominent authority on infectious disease and pandemic, the Centers of Disease Control, hide nothing, sugarcoat nothing but report accurately, plainly, clearly, empirically, completely–and that may be the best cure this editor might know for panic and state-driven perceptual control of “the masses”.

In America, at least, democracy has just become more directly responsive and responsible to the People.

–33–

Afghanistan’s Violence-Stalling Peace-Encouraging Doha Agreement

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Afghanistan, International Development, Islamic Small Wars

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Left: Diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, U.S. Department of State; right: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Chief of Taliban’s Diplomatic Office, Doha, Qatar. Screen capture, February 29, 2020.

Where it may have begun —

Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

How it may have been sustained —

Gibbons-Neff, Thomas. “Russia is sending weapons to Taliban, top U.S. general confirms.” The Washington Post, April 24, 2017.

Where it may have ended this day —

George, Susannah and Dan Lamothe. “U.S. signs peace deal with Taliban, a turning point in the 18-year war in Afghanistan. The Washington Post, February 29, 2020.

Related on BackChannels

Civilizational Narcissism

Related Online

Bellis, Charlotte. “US-Taliban talks: Who is Mullah Baradar? Taliban Cofounder turned political chief, Abdul Ghani Baradar has wored in the shadows his entire life.” Al Jazeera, May 2, 2019.

–33–

Threat Assessments Unthinkable, But They Are Here — and Sometimes Actionable

27 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Iran

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Two articles have caught my attention from the damnably nasty regions of Biological and Chemical Warfare:

Bob, Yonah Jeremy, Neville Teller. “Ex-CIA official warns of Iran, ISIS drones armed with chemical weapons.” The Jerusalem Post, February 10, 2020.

Kania, Elsa B. and Wilson Vorndick. “Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military is Preparing for a ‘New Domain of Warfare’.” Defense Once, August 14, 2019.

COVID-19?

It may be a taste of poison on the sophisticated tips of the arrows developing in radically different kinds of quivers.

One bullet point from the list included in the Defense One article:

In 2015, then-president of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences He Fuchu (贺福初) argued that biotechnology will become the new “strategic commanding heights” of national defense, from biomaterials to “brain control” weapons. Maj. Gen. He has since become the vice president of the Academy of Military Sciences, which leads China’s military science enterprise. 

What New Demons are these of formerly great Dynasties?

Totalitarian genius cannot be but evil.

Drone Bomb Swarms?

From The Jerusalem Post piece:

The greatest threat confronting the US and Israel may be swarms of drones armed with chemical weapons released by Iran or ISIS, an ex-CIA official has told The Jerusalem Post.The warning takes on greater meaning following a call on January 28 by ISIS’s new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, to direct greater attention to attacking Israel and Jews, including using chemical weapons.

In relation to the latter piece, attack have been already thwarted but with the details withheld by the CIA.

–33–

(Putin) | Erdogan | Trump

13 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, North America, Political Psychology, Turkey, United States of America

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Posted by RT for the Dedication of Moscow’s Grand Mosque – 2015.
Posted by CBS News to YouTube November 13, 2019.

Is “Winter” coming — or is it already here?

Listen to the high notes: Arms Deals, Trade Deals, Expanding Markets.

Mentioned: Turkey’s participation in the building of the F-35 air frame. While that mention may score points with the less informed public, Turkey’s participation in NATO defense manufacturing in relation to the American fighter jet program has created heat and a now discomfiting defense relationship. The following description of the depth of Turkey’s participation in the F-35 Program tells why:

Eight Turkish companies make parts for the fuselage, landing gear and cockpit displays of the aircraft, according to Lockheed Martin. Some of them have been producing F-35 parts since 2004. For example, Fokker Elmo manufactures 40 percent of the F-35’s electrical wiring and interconnection system.

These companies are set to do $12 billion in work on the F-35 program over the life of the jet, according to USNI News.

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/05/13/Pentagon-looks-for-new-vendors-to-replace-F-35-parts-made-in-Turkey/7021557756044/

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is preparing to transfer Turkey’s industrial participation in the F-35 to other countries unless Ankara reverses course on its plans to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system.

The move — which in early 2020 would end contracts with major Turkish defense contractors such as Turkish Aerospace Industries, Roketsan and Tusas Engine Industries, among many others — is just one of many steps the U.S. Defense Department intends to take to strip Turkey from the F-35 program, according to a June 6 letter from acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/06/07/turkish-suppliers-to-be-eliminated-from-f-35-program-in-2020/ – June 7, 2019.

On the F-35 matter, the White House noted in July, ” Unfortunately, Turkey’s decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible. The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.”

Freedom House metrics involving civil liberties and political rights rates Erdogan’s Turkey as “Not Free”. On the matter of Freedom of Speech, a matter that President Trump has baldly attacked with the accusation “Fake News!” aimed at America’s responsible mainstream media, Erdogan’s state has made itself notorious for the inhibition and jailing of Turkey’s journalists. Wikipedia’s “Censorship in Turkey” tells that story.

More recently, Jay Nordlinger writing for The National Review (“Turkey, NATO, and a Shifting World”, November 12, 2019), notes that Erdogan, perhaps responding to Putin’s lead in the encouragement of xenophobia in the still liberal and open democracies of EU/NATO, has leverage:

Erdogan has a card to play against Europe, as he confirmed in a speech on October 10. That card is a refugee card, the threat of a flood. There are 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. “Come to your senses,” he told the EU in that speech, given to his party in Ankara. “I will say this once again: If you try to label our current operation an occupation, our job becomes easier: We will open the gates and send the 3.6 million refugees to you.”

Despite this threat, several EU nations have responded to Operation Peace Spring, imposing arms embargoes on Turkey. These nations include Germany, France, Sweden, and Finland.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/turkey-nato-shifting-world/ – 11/12/2019

Reference: Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/03/11/reflexive-control-process-allahu-akbar-terrorism-new-nationalism-neo-feudalism/ – 3/11/2017

Regarding Moscow and Terrorism

BackChannels has long maintained a quick reference list for copy-paste relay of Moscow’s post-Soviet play in the narrative around Islamic Terrorism. It begins with David Satter’s account of the “Moscow Apartment Bombings”, back-fills with Anna Politkovskaya’s observations on the Russian Army’s brutalizing of Chechen villages, moves through Ayman al-Zawahiri’s whistle-stop in Russia (published in Business Insider), and ends near the U.S. military observation of Russia’s supplying the Taliban (today) with arms and materiel. Here it is*:

Satter, David. “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror That Brought Putin to Power.” National Review, August 17, 2016.

Politkovskaya, Anna. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches From Chechnya. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Press Books, 2003.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayman_al-Zawahiri

Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/15162-defector-putin-s-kgb-trained-top-al-qaeda-terrorists

https://thediplomat.com/2017/08/understanding-the-russia-taliban-connection/ – 8/4/2017

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/26/596933077/top-u-s-commander-in-afghanistan-accuses-russia-of-aiding-taliban – 3/26/2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/04/24/russia-is-sending-weapons-to-taliban-top-u-s-general-confirms/

Moscow’s persistent Orwellian (and paternally authoritarian) character may come through as it dawns on the reader that the state appears to manipulate its public with something like “KGB Theater” (again, read David Satter on the “Moscow Apartment Bombings”).

The production of “The Syrian Tragedy” well displays the form as Bashar “The Butcher” Assad chose to barrel bomb Syrian noncombatants while al-Qaeda types gathered in his space and eventually distilled into “ISIL” or, today “Islamic State” — see https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/12/09/syria-assad-isil-background/ for related argument and the basis for it in references.

Basically, BackChannels believes Assad — as flanked by Putin and Khamanei — chose his enemy, i.e., an “enemy preferred” or a dumb foil he knew he would beat (with Russian assistance), and which victory would redound to his glorious (malign and narcissistic) appearance.

By choosing amity with President Erdogan, President Trump has stepped into the Great Neo-KGB Theater of History, but with one immense issue: a spirited American public and system in part armored against the dawning of totalitarian control and related debasements and indignities. In lieu of the Soviet Communist project that gave up the ghost on December 25, 1991, the (E)State Capitalism — the making and hoarding of money by any means no matter what the costs to humanity — associated with Vladimir Putin appears to be working — and Americans (and the North American and European presses) seem slow to catch on.

*Mixed formatting has to do with the editor’s interest, purpose, and time–for the blog: okey dokey; for a monograph some time in the future, Chicago rules.

–33–

FTAC – About ‘Hybrid’ Putin – Some Questions for EU-NATO

25 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philosophy, Russia, Turkey

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The grousing question was, ” Europe is right on Russia’s door step. They have militaries. Why aren’t they stopping Putin ? E.U. doesn’t do squat.”

The answer from BackChannels was —

Stop him . . . where?

From making friends?

From offering Russian passports to Russian speakers whom he may claim to be offering protection?

From spiffing up the nuclear missile silo and two radars in Crimea, Ukraine?

From bombing hospitals in Syria and bulking up his military presence in a space scoured of apparently excess Syrians?

From financing politicians like Marine Le Pen using circuitous routes to do so?

From cultivating like-minded “leaders” who view their states as family businesses and themselves as the best representatives of their national kind?

From playing his “energy card” in Turkey — and in Germany?

From flying nuclear-capable bombers in the Western Hemisphere?

From developing a nuclear missile too erratic and too fast to catch by any known defense system?

From stealing a Superbowl ring?

The boys, one selling, the other shopping Russian jets break for ice cream in the vicinity of August 27, 2019.

Related Online

Bekdil, Burak Ege and Matthew Bodner. “No obliteration: Western arms embargo has little impact on Turkey as it looks east.” Defense News, October 24, 2019.

ANKARA, Turkey, and MOSCOW — A number of Turkey’s NATO allies have suspended arms sales to the country in condemnation of its military incursion into Syria, but analysts and officials are shrugging off the embargo, saying it will have a minimal impact on the military’s operational capabilities.

Several countries, including France, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain and Germany, imposed arms embargoes against the Turkish government after its troops entered Syria to attack the Kurdish militia, which Turkey views as a terrorist group. Turkey said its military operation, launched Oct. 9, will help create a safe zone in northeastern Syria.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/mideast-africa/2019/10/24/no-obliteration-western-arms-embargo-has-little-impact-on-turkey-as-it-looks-east/ – 10/23/2019.

–33–

The Devolution Will be Televised: Kurdistan – End of Ceasefire

22 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Kurdistan, Russia, Syria, Turkey

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There may be a no-fly zone in force for the border of interest. The editor here has been listening to more testimony that watching “action” on the live cameras.

Earlier Today

Posted to YouTube in 2015

Kurdish forces acting as American / western proxies fought and died ejecting Islamic State from Syria. Is the west now to do nothing for them?

Related Online

Bekdil, Burak. “Turkey’s Pyrrhic Victory in Syria”. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA), October 22, 2019.

Fahim, Kareem. “Russia, Turkey agree to jointly remove Kurdish fighters along Turkey’s border in northern Syria.” The Washington Post, October 22, 2019.

O’Connor, Tom. “Russia and Turkey Present New Deal for Syria After Six Hours of Talks and U.S. Exit.” Newsweek, October 22, 2019.

Stark, Alexandra and Ariel I. Ahram. “How the United States Can Escape the Middle East’s Porxy Wars.” Foreign Policy Research Institute, October 22, 2019.

Now, the whole rationale Trump put forward for the retreat — to get American troops out of the Mideast and “endless wars” — is in doubt.

Rather than leaving the region, the withdrawing troops will deploy in neighboring Iraq to fight the Islamic State group, which could get new life from the Syrian turmoil. Some U.S. forces are still in eastern Syria, helping Kurdish fighters protect oilfields. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday he was discussing keeping them there.

Trump surprised even his own military on the ground when he agreed to remove U.S. soldiers working with Kurdish-led forces near the border in an Oct. 6 phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Three days later, Turkey launched its offensive with heavy bombardment along the border.

https://www.courthousenews.com/america-is-running-away-kurds-pelt-withdrawing-troops/ 10/22/2019

–33–

From Democracy to Despotism – Erdogan Takes Turkey East

21 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, Political Psychology, Russia, Turkey

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Erdoğan says his demand for a safe zone in Syria is rooted in Turkey’s war against terrorism. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Erdoğan says, is as much a threat as the Islamic State. That is of course nonsense . . . .

Rubin, Michael. “Turkey’s Syria Policy Could Lead to Its Own Destruction.” National Interest, October 21, 2019.

While those both enamored and fearful of power have always played “both sides of the street”, Turkey’s drift from a freely speaking, open, and vibrant democracy to one far from NATO ethics, interests, and values should be clear to the free world. Through the power of President Erdogan’s feudal imagination and thuggery, Turkey has been transformed into a politically absolute polity driven by the narcissism of its leader

Worse for the Turks and even his fans: President Erdogan’s toadying before Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Erdogan may appear strong standing up to the west, which today cannot levy enough sanctions on his project (probably hurting the Turks more than the Turkish President), but how may he appear doing Putin’s bidding while his equally enamored — or captive to Moscow — neighbor, Bashar al-Assad AKA “Bashar the Butcher”, continues destroying and strangling Syria — in Turkey’s direction too — under cover of destroying Sunni Islamists?

When Turkish air power rightly downed two Russian MIGs overflying Turkey’s airspace while refusing communications with Turkish air defense, Erdogan refused apology. And what for? He and his military had done everything right for the purposes of Turkish Defense.

The Su-24 shootdown took place on November 24, 2015.

Eight months later, widely reported on June 27, 2016, Erdogan apologized to Putin.

That has turned out a fair demonstration of Russian “realpolitik” and maddening absolute power.

For those watching — and those who knew the facts — “Sultan Erdogan” may just as well have knelt before “Emperor Putin”.

Perhaps President Erdogan has had some household bills yet to pay, and, beside, has needed a certain supply of energy to heat the house.

I hope the excerpts and videos that follow prove helpful as windows into the love fest developed between Ankara and Moscow.

2014

Posted to YouTube by Erdogan Gönüllüleri (Erdogan Volunteers), October 30, 2014.

The first direct gas pipeline between Russia and Turkey was the Blue Stream, commissioned in 2005. In 2009, Putin proposed a Blue Stream II line parallel to Blue Stream under the Black Sea.[2] The Blue Stream II project did not carry through and the South Stream project took the lead, until it was abandoned in 2014. The TurkStream (then named Turkish Stream) project was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 1 December 2014, during his state visit to Turkey.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurkStream

Related Online

Kenyon, Peter. “Turkey’s President And His 1,100 Room ‘White Palace'”. NPR, December 24, 2014.

2015

Posted to YouTube by Channel 4 News, November 24, 2015.

The Russia Defence Ministry denied the aircraft ever left Syrian airspace, counter-claiming that their satellite data showed that the Sukhoi was about 1,000 metres (1,100 yd) inside Syrian airspace when it was shot down.[5] The U.S. State Department said that the U.S. independently confirmed that the aircraft’s flight path violated Turkish territory, and that the Turks gave multiple warnings to the pilot, to which they received no response and released audio recordings of the warnings they had broadcast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Russian_Sukhoi_Su-24_shootdown
Moscow’s Grand Mosque Dedication – Published to YouTube by RT, September 23, 2015.

2016

MOSCOW — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan apologized Monday for the downing of a Russian warplane in November and called for Russia and Turkey to mend a bilateral relationship that has become openly hostile over the incident.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/turkey-apologizes-for-shooting-down-russian-warplane-last-year/2016/06/27/d969e0ea-3c6d-11e6-9e16-4cf01a41decb_story.html – 6/27/2016

2019

Gazprom has started to fill the first branch of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream pipeline with natural gas. This is the final stage of testing the pipeline before putting it into operation later this year . . . .

. . . The first line is intended for the supply of Russian gas to Turkish consumers, the second – for gas supply to the countries of southern and southeast Europe.

https://financialtribune.com/articles/energy/100392/russia-begins-pumping-gas-into-turkish-stream-pipeline – 10/19/2019.

Erdoğan says his demand for a safe zone in Syria is rooted in Turkey’s war against terrorism. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Erdoğan says, is as much a threat as the Islamic State. That is of course nonsense: The SDF formed to fight Al Qaeda affiliates and the Islamic State at a time when Turkey was passively if not actively supporting them. Nor can Turkish officials credibly point to terrorist attacks from Kurdish-governed portions of Syria. Groups that evolved from the PKK are not monoliths: The SDF is progressive and moderate; any visit to the region makes clear that the group does not embrace the PKK’s Cold War-era Marxism. The PKK itself has long sought peace and does not attack civilians. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) splinter group continues to engage in terrorism, but they are based nowhere near Syria nor do they have any links to the SDF.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/middle-east-watch/turkeys-syria-policy-could-lead-its-own-destruction-89841 10/21/2019

In a recent article in Foreign Policy, my colleague Steven A. Cook argued that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was playing Washington like a fiddle. With a combination of bluffs, threats, and bluster, Erdogan managed to convince the United States to come up with an arrangement in northeastern Syria to prevent a Turkish invasion—an arrangement that comes at the expense of the Kurds, who have carried the brunt of the fighting against the Islamic State. Whatever one thinks of the Kurds, their determination and sacrifice should be treated as an international public good; they have stopped and destroyed one of the most dangerous and homicidal groups the modern world has known. The Turks by contrast have contributed nothing to this endeavor.

If Erdogan has succeeded in manipulating Washington, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in turn, has played him to the hilt.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/03/putin-plays-erdogan-like-a-fiddle-syria/ – 9/3/2019.

Related on BackChannels

“Civilizational Narcissism”; “Malignant Narcissism”.

Also Related Online

Abadi, Cameron. “Why is Turkey Fighting Syria’s Kurds?” Foreign Policy (FP), October 17, 2019.

BBC News. “Qatar’s emir ‘gives $500m private jet to Turkey'”. September 17, 2018.

How Homeowner Erdogan Looks Online

Posted to YouTube by James Mac, December 28, 2014 – Primary Source: BBC News, “Erdogan presidential palace – in 60 seconds”, November 6, 2014.
Posted to YouTube by Global News, August 27, 2019.

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