Turkish minister: 95% of the Turkish people believe Gulen is behind the coup....

Turkish minister: 95% of the Turkish people believe Gulen is behind the coup....

    Thursday, July 28, 2016   No comments

ISR comment: ... and we have arrested the other 5%.

Turkish ruling party's pursuit of a purge and the revelation that Gulen was behind the failed coup before any credible investigation took place adds credence to the claim made by Gulen that Erdogan might be behind the coup.
Some European officials also voiced concern that Turkish authorities appear to have had a prepared list of the people they arrested or fired immediately after the coup.
Turkish officials are not helping their case either.

To claim that that 95% of the Turkish people believe that Gulen is behind the coup is to suggest that Turkish authorities operate on suspicions not on facts backed by evidence. After all, how did this minister know that 95% of the Turkish people believe that Gulen is behind the coup? Did he have to exaggerate?

In fact there are actual surveys, but they put that number at 64%, not 95%.
Looking at the images of Erdogan's supporters brutally beating soldiers, one gets the impression that it is actually Erdogan who launched a successful coup.

Rights group: There is"credible evidence" that Turkey has tortured hundreds of people detained following the July 15 coup attempt

Rights group: There is"credible evidence" that Turkey has tortured hundreds of people detained following the July 15 coup attempt

    Sunday, July 24, 2016   No comments

Rights Group Says Turkey Coup Detainees Have Been Tortured

Amnesty International says it has "credible evidence" that Turkey has tortured hundreds of people detained in a wave of arrests following a failed July 15 coup attempt.

The global rights watchdog said on July 24 that some of those in custody were being "subjected to beatings and torture, including rape, in official and unofficial detention centers in the country."

Turkish authorities have detained more than 13,000 people in a crackdown following the failed military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Some 6,000 of those detained have been formally arrested.

London-based Amnesty International cited interviews with doctors, lawyers, and an official in a detention center in saying that evidence suggests detainees have been subject to brutal abuses.

Confirming what was rumored in 2013, Saudi Arabia Offered Russia influence in the Middle East in return for dropping its support for Assad

Confirming what was rumored in 2013, Saudi Arabia Offered Russia influence in the Middle East in return for dropping its support for Assad

    Saturday, July 23, 2016   No comments

ISR Weekly: 
The Saudi rulers must think that there are no limits to the power of money in shaping the world according to their desires. After all, they have been so successful in building an image of a moderate nation when the kingdom actually have troubling human rights record. They have used money to pay off coalition partners to have their coutnries' names attached to the Saudi war on Yemen. They threatened to withhold money from UN relief organizations unless the UN removes the kingdom's name from the UN Blacklist of nations that kill children. They threatened to dump $750 billion of U.S. government bonds if the administration released documents that point to the kingdom's role in 9/11 attacks and passing laws that allow the 9/11 victims to sue Saudi citizens and government officials. And now they are confirming that they tried to bribe Putin so that he drops his support for the Syrian government. Apparently, they are mistaken. Putin turned down their offer and U.S. released the 28 pages. The kingdom's name will be linked to killing children in Yemen regardless. The truth cannot be obscured forever.


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Saudi Arabia will offer Russia access to the Gulf Cooperation Council Market and regional

Why were 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report classified for over 13 years?

Why were 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report classified for over 13 years?

    Friday, July 22, 2016   No comments

 ISR Weekly: A document that was classified by two U.S. administrations is finally out. The delay in releasing a document related to the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil by itself raised many concerns. The content, redacted still, though is damning to both the rulers of Saudi Arabia and U.S. officials. Below are excerpts from some media coverage of the release of the 28-pages.

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The long-classified document detailing possible connections between the government of Saudi Arabia and the Sept. 11 terrorist plot released on Friday is a wide-ranging catalog of meetings and suspicious coincidences.

Fighters from US-backed Syrian rebel group beheads child in Aleppo, Syria

Fighters from US-backed Syrian rebel group beheads child in Aleppo, Syria

    Wednesday, July 20, 2016   No comments

The US is investigating a video which appears to show members of one of the Syrian rebel groups it has funded beheading a child. U.S. said its support to the group might be reconsidered.

Images of a fighter cutting off the small boy's head with a knife matched some of the worst brutalities committed by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) group, which has killed hundreds of captives in Syria and neighbouring Iraq in the past three years.

The boy, who looked to be around 12 years old, was captured near Handarat Refugee Camp in northern Aleppo by Nour al-Din al-Zenki - the main opposition faction fighting the Syrian regime in newly besieged city.

Amnesty: Syrian rebels guilty of war crimes

Amnesty: Syrian rebels guilty of war crimes

    Friday, July 08, 2016   No comments

ISR comment: Four years later, NGOs and western media start to report on the crimes committed by opposition groups in Syria. As early as 2012, ISR reported on war crimes and crimes against humanity--self-documented crimes-- committed by the so-called Free Syrian Army groups, which were--and many of them still are--sponsored and protected by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey and their Western allies.

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Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life, said Amnesty International.

The organization has gathered strong evidence of serious violations from eyewitnesses, and obtained the names of at least 83 civilians, including 30 children, who were killed by attacks in Sheikh Maqsoud between February and April 2016. More than 700 civilians were also injured, according to the local field hospital. Video evidence seen by Amnesty International shows artillery shelling, rocket and mortar attacks carried out by the Fatah Halab (Aleppo Conquest) coalition of armed groups in the area, targeting the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) controlling the area.

Chilcot Report on Iraq War: Devastating critique of Tony Blair and his government

Chilcot Report on Iraq War: Devastating critique of Tony Blair and his government

    Wednesday, July 06, 2016   No comments

The effects of the illegal war on Iraq is still being felt in Iraq and Syria.

Iraqi casualties of 2003 war and occupation

The Guardian commented and summarized the report as follows:

John Chilcot has delivered a devastating critique of Tony Blair’s decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003, with his long-awaited report concluding that Britain chose to join the US invasion before “peaceful options for disarmament” had been exhausted.

The head of the Iraq war inquiry said the UK’s decision to attack and occupy a sovereign state for the first time since the second world war was a decision of “utmost gravity”. He described Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein, as “undoubtedly a brutal dictator” who had repressed his own people and attacked his neighbours.

But Chilcot – whom Gordon Brown asked seven years ago to head an inquiry into the conflict – was withering about Blair’s choice to join the US invasion. Chilcot said: “We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not a last resort.”

The report suggests that Blair’s self-belief was a major factor in the decision to go to war. In a section headed Lessons, Chilcot writes: “When the potential for military action arises, the government should not commit to a firm political objective before it is clear it can be achieved. Regular reassessment is essential.”

The report also bitterly criticises the way in which Blair made the case for Britain to go to war. It says the notorious dossier presented in September 2002 by Blair to the House of Commons did not support his claim that Iraq had a growing programme of chemical and biological weapons.

...
Chilcot’s report is more damning than expected and amounts to arguably the most scathing official verdict given on any modern British prime minister. His 2.6m-word, 12-volume report was released on Wednesday morning, together with a 145-page executive summary.

It concludes:

• There was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein.

• The strategy of containment could have been adopted and continued for some time.

• The judgments about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction – WMDs – were presented with a certainty that was not justified.

• Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated. The planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam were wholly inadequate.

• The government failed to achieve its stated objectives.

...
The Report of the Iraq Inquiry - The Executive Summary:
http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/246416/the-report-of-the-iraq-inquiry_executive-summary.pdf

Full report can be found here:
http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/the-report/