U.S. Currently Fighting 74 Different Wars… That It Will Publicly Admit… And Many More Covert Wars Without Congressional Oversight… Let Alone Public Knowledge

Fire Dog Lake’s Kevin Gosztola notes:

Linda J. Bilmes and Michael D. Intriligator, ask in a recent paper, “How many wars is the US fighting today?”

Today US military operations are involved in scores of countries across all the five continents. The US military is the world’s largest landlord, with significant military facilities in nations around the world, and with a significant presence in Bahrain, Djibouti,Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to long-established bases in Germany, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and the UK.  Some of these are vast, such as the Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters of the United States Central Command, which has recently been expanded to accommodate up to 10,000 troops and 120 aircraft.

Top Turkish officials: Rapid steps to restore Turkey-Israel ties to commence in coming days

The past few days have been good to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. On Thursday, a domestic rival, Abbdullah Ojalan, leader of the separatist Kurds, announced a historic ceasefire, and on Friday his demands from his bitter rival Benjamin Netanyahu were conceded entirely. The precise wording of the apology, the precise phrasings that diplomats, negotiators, and presidential advisors have been laboring on for years aren’t really important. The outcome was one: Israel has apologized, and has agreed to pay compensation and take steps towards lifting the siege on Gaza.

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The public enmity with Israel played well into Erdogan’s hands, who meanwhile tightened his ties with Syria’s Bashar Assad and the regime in Iran. When the uprisings of the Arab Spring unraveled, he became a hero who, despite opposing intervention in Libya – largely due to Turkey’s immense investments in the country – supported the new government there, urged Egypt’s Mubarak to resign and then quickly fostered a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime. His shaky relationship with Jerusalem added considerable weight to his legitimacy in the Arab world, which has traditionally been suspicious of Turkey because it isn’t an Arab state and due to its close ties with Israel. Just months after the uprising began in Syria, Erdogan changed his attitude toward Assad as well. After making efforts to try and persuade Assad to carry out reforms, Erdogan realized that his personal relationship with Assad would not help him bring about changes in Syria. All of a sudden, Assad was transformed into a bitter enemy who needed to be removed, and Erdogan decided that Turkey would become a rear base for the Syrian opposition. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey now became the new axis driving events in the Middle East, with Turkey as the anchor for American policy vis-à-vis Syria, Iraq and even Iran, with which Turkey maintains widespread commercial ties despite the sanctions, having received a partial exemption.

Germany’s Rise … and Rise to Power!

Both the German public and the general public have been victim of a masterful public relations campaign, aided and abetted by an Anglo-Saxon mass media terribly ignorant of true history, which has convinced the world at large of two great lies—that Germany is now a model, peaceful democratic nation, and that it is simply not capable of raising a powerful military force to be a threat, yet again, to world peace.

Yet German power can no longer be hidden. Even certain German politicians are beginning to express concerns at the scope of the nation’s weapons industry.

Al Jazeera a Muslim Brotherhood Front?

Consider this reason number nine in things to know about a previous article entitled “7 Things You Need to Know About Al Jazeera“.

Al Jazeera’s founders, themselves close to the Muslim Brotherhood, have long attempted to gain influence in the U.S., including through the financing of Arabic classes in American public schools via a Muslim Brotherhood-linked charity.

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Al Jazeera this week announced a plan to establish a new U.S. cable news channel, tentatively call Al Jazeera America, utilizing the purchase of Current TV.

Air Defense for the Exile Leadership

DAMASCUS/ANKARA/BERLIN (Own report) – The German Bundeswehr is possibly on the verge of a deployment directly at the Syrian border. According to reports in the media, today, Turkey will officially request that NATO station “Patriot” surface-to-air missiles on its southwestern territory, supposedly as protection from Syrian combat jets and missiles. The German government has agreed to participate with up to 170 military personnel. As a matter of fact, the stationing is planned not only for the territory, where, for quite some time, conflicts with Kurdish separatists have been escalating. According to concrete plans drawn up by top-ranking Turkish and US officers and presented to the White House, they also lay the groundwork for establishing a no-fly zone over Syrian territory. The objective is to create conditions, over the next few weeks, allowing the recently – in Qatar – founded Syrian exile leadership to leave exile and become established in northern Syria, which requires security from aerial attacks.

Iran’s global cyber war-room is secretly hosted by Hizballah in Beirut

Iran’s secret cyber war-room is located at Hizballah’s secret internal security apparatus headquarters in the Shiite Dahya district of South Beirut, debkafile’s exclusive intelligence and counterterrorism sources reveal. The hackers and cyber experts who recently attacked

Iran threatens US, Turkey after Israel with spreading Syrian conflict

The only thing likely holding back Turkey is the diplomacy of the USA and NATO.

Tehran is not done with threats after shaking its fist at Israel: Tuesday, Aug. 7, Iranian Armed Forces Chief Gen. Hassan Firuzabadi pointed at Ankara and other Middle East capitals when he declared: “Turkey will be next in line for violence after Syria if it continues to work on behalf of Western interests.”

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The Iranian army chief warned: “If those nations carry on this way, they should realize that Turkey is the next in line.”  He was in fact holding them all responsible for a potential outbreak of war with Turkey.

Spreading around responsibility for violence with accompanying threats appears to be Iran’s latest diplomatic ploy.

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Gen. Firuzabadi addressed his threat to Turkey shortly before the arrival in Ankara of Iran’s foreign minister, Ali-Akbar Salehi, in the hope of galvanizing the Turks into forcing the Syrian rebels to let go of their Iranian hostages.

Tehran now holds at least three nations, the US, Turkey and Israel, in peril of military action in the context of the Syrian conflict.  Israel was the object of the first threat of engulfment by the “Syrian fire.”

Full article: Iran threatens US, Turkey after Israel with spreading Syrian conflict (DEBKAfile)

Syria: Assad regime ‘ready to use chemical weapons’

What’s reflected in this story is what was predicted and foretold would happen in another post, less than two days ago. This regime is not going down without making sure everyone else in the region suffers.

The most senior Syrian politician to defect to the opposition has told the BBC the regime will not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it is cornered.

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Asked if he thought President Assad might use chemical weapons against the opposition, Mr Fares told BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner in an interview in Qatar that he would not rule it out, describing Mr Assad as “a wounded wolf and cornered”.

“There is information, unconfirmed information of course, that chemical weapons have been used partially in the city of Homs,” he said.

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“It doesn’t occur to any Syrian, not only me, that Bashar al-Assad will let go of power through political interventions… He will be ousted only by force,” Mr Fares said.

Full article: Syria: Assad regime ‘ready to use chemical weapons’ (BBC)

U.S. extends runways at Qatar air base to accommodate B-2 bomber

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has continued its project to expand a
base in Qatar.

The Defense Department has been awarding contracts for construction work at the Al Udeid air base in Qatar. On Jan. 17, the Pentagon awarded a $27.8 million contract to Contrack International for the expansion and upgrade of Al Udeid, which contains the Air Force operations command for the Gulf region.

“The award will provide for the construction services at Al Udeid Base, Qatar,” the Pentagon said.

Continue reading article: U.S. extends runways at Qatar air base to accommodate B-2 bomber (World Tribune)