September 27, 2016


News and Views


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/us-appeals-court-leaves-proof-of-citizenship-voting-requirement-to-federal-panel/2016/09/26/393be7c6-8407-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics-pm&wpmm=1

Local
U. S. appeals court leaves proof-of-citizenship voting requirement to federal panel
By Spencer S. Hsu
September 26 at 4:50 PM

Photograph – Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach in his Topeka office. (Christopher Smith/For The Washington Post)

A U.S. appeals court panel that barred Kansas, Alabama and Georgia from adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to a federal voter registration form wrote Monday that federal law leaves it to a federal elections agency — not the states — to determine whether such a change is ­necessary.

The 2-to-1 written opinion follows a Sept. 9 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. ­Circuit.

The panel wrote that although the document requirement “unquestionably” hinders voter registration groups ahead of the November elections, there was “precious little” evidence of voter fraud by noncitizens, the problem the states said the measure is intended to fight.

The Kansas secretary of state had told the court that “between 2003 and 2015 eighteen noncitizens had tried to or successfully registered to vote. Only one of them attempted to use the Federal Form,” the judges wrote.

[Without conservative Supreme Court majority, voter-law challengers make gains]

U.S. Appeals Court Judges Judith W. Rogers and Stephen F. Williams granted a preliminary injunction Sept. 9 that told the states to process the federal voter applications filed since January as if documented proof of citizenship were not required.

Voting rights groups asked for the temporary halt to enforcement as they continued to challenge the document requirement in a case before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon.

Monday’s opinion, which noted that voting rights groups probably would win their lawsuit at trial, likely is the final word before the Nov. 8 presidential election but sets up the legal battle over proof-of-citizenship laws for the 2018 federal elections.

“Judge Rogers’s opinion is flawed because it fails to address all of the statutory issues in this case,” as well as a 1994 federal regulation, said Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach after the ruling on Monday. Kobach pointed to the dissent from U.S. Appeals Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph, who called the court order unconstitutional.

“It is the States, and the States alone, who have the authority and the power to determine the ­eligibility of those who wish to vote in federal elections,” Randolph wrote.

He added, “Neither the Congress nor the President nor any federal commission and, most certainly, not two federal judges sitting in Washington, D.C. (or even eight or nine) have the authority to prevent Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from enforcing their laws in the upcoming federal elections.”

[Appeals court strikes down proof-of-citizenship voting requirement in 3 states]

The decision came in a lawsuit by the League of Women Voters and other groups, which sued after what they called an unauthorized and unilateral decision on Jan. 29 by Brian D. Newby, executive director of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, to grant the three states’ requests to alter the federal registration form to incorporate state identification requirements.

Kansas is the only state enforcing a demand to show documentation such as a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers to register to vote in federal races, instead of allowing applicants to check a box, sign and swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.

In an unusual move, the Justice Department did not defend Newby’s action, siding with voting rights groups and leaving it to outside parties, including Kansas, to intervene in court.

In Monday’s opinion, the appeals court said that Newby acted unilaterally, without a vote by the four-member federal elections panel, and also without determining that the states’ request was necessary to enforce voter-qualification rules.

The groups that sued argued that citizens who lack documents tend to be poor, rural and African American, and the Supreme Court has said the federal form is meant to provide a “backstop” and guarantee a simple way to register to vote in federal elections — no matter what hurdles states impose.

[U.S. appeals court skeptical of proof-of-citizenship voting requirement in 3 states]

“Permitting the states to dictate the contents of the Federal Form would undermine” its role as a ‘backstop, the two-judge majority wrote. “The Commission, not the states, determines necessity.”

“If the proposed change to the Federal Form is ‘necessary’ to enforce voter qualifications, then the [National Voter Registration Act] and probably the Constitution require its inclusion; if not, the NVRA does not permit its inclusion and the Constitution is silent,” the judges said.

Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy award nominee.



CHARLOTTE GIRL SPEAKS HER MIND

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/angry-charlotte-residents-call-on-mayor-police-chief-to-quit/

Girl's plea to Charlotte council: "We are black people and we shouldn’t have to feel like this"
CBS/AP
September 27, 2016, 5:24 AM

Play VIDEO -- What's next for the Charlotte PD?
Play VIDEO -- No reports of violence in Sunday protests as Charlotte lifts curfew


CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Angry Charlotte residents verbally lashed City Council members for hours, complaining about what they called unaccountable police officers and civilian leaders who have failed to force change as the city marked a week of protests since a police officer fatally shot a black man.

At its Monday night meeting, the council opened the floor to dozens of residents who voiced their opinions about the Sept. 21 shooting of Kevin Lamont Scott by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. Many called on Mayor Jennifer Roberts, Police Chief Kerr Putney and other council members to resign on the seventh day of protests since the shooting.

“It’s going to be rough in these streets until you give justice to our people,” said the Rev. Milton Williams, the final speaker in a three-hour string. “Our city’s in an uproar, and you did not respond.”

Some speakers brought their children, not only to share in the moment, but in several instances, to address the council. Many in the crowd were brought to tears by the comments of Zianna Oliphant, a child who needed a stool to be seen over the lectern.

“It’s a shame that our fathers and brothers are killed and we can’t see them anymore,” Zianna said. “It’s a shame that we have to go through that graveyard and bury him. We need our fathers and brothers to be by our side.”

As Oliphant herself began to tear up, she continued her plea to the council.

“I’ve been born and raised in Charlotte. And I never felt this way till now and I can’t stand how we’re treated,” she said according to CNN, while wiping her cheeks on her short sleeves. “We are black people and we shouldn’t have to feel like this. We shouldn’t have to protest because y’all are treating us wrong. We do this because we need to and have rights.”

Council member Kenny Smith said the council should be listening and taking action to answer the concerns.

“The unrest here has been decades in the making,” council member Al Alston said. “Tuesday was the boiling point, and it’s getting hotter.”

Meanwhile, several hundred demonstrators marched peacefully through downtown Charlotte Monday evening after leaving a rally organized by the NAACP to protest the shooting, reports CBS Charlotte affiliate WBTV.

The demonstrators left a downtown church Monday evening in a slow-moving procession behind a police SUV down the center of the streets. It’s not clear whether the group had a parade permit.

Charlotte officials had warned earlier Monday that marching or demonstrating in the streets without a permit is illegal.

There have been demonstrations every night in Charlotte since the shooting, and some of the protests turned violent.

At the church, North Carolina NAACP President Rev. William Barber said federal authorities should investigate the city’s police department. Police officers who fail to operate their body cameras during an encounter should be prosecuted, Barber said.

Six people have been fatally shot since body cameras were given to all patrol officers about a year ago. But the officers who fired the fatal shots in five of those cases - including Scott’s - weren’t using the cameras.

Charlotte police didn’t respond Monday to requests for information about those cases.

Charlotte police shooting protests

Many of the speakers at Monday night’s council meeting carried signs expressing their anger. One called for the repeal of legislation taking effect on Saturday blocking the release of police video without a court order. Many speakers demanded that police release all video footage of the confrontation.

Scott’s family and advocacy groups complain that the department divulged only about three minutes of footage from two cameras. They have urged the police department to release all other video footage it has, as well as audio recordings of communications that could clarify how the situation unfolded. A media coalition is also requesting more footage.

“We have no reason to trust you, and you’re giving us even less,” Khasha Harris told City Council members.

The footage released so far of Scott’s shooting left questions in many people’s minds - including whether he was holding a gun, as police have stated. Scott’s family said he didn’t have a weapon. The footage includes body camera video from one officer, but not the black officer who fatally wounded Scott.

The gun recovered at the scene of Scott’s shooting had been stolen and later sold to Scott, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police source told WBTV and The Associated Press on Monday. The source insisted on speaking anonymously because the State Bureau of Investigation continues to look into the case. SBI Agent Erik Hooks declined comment when asked whether the gun had been stolen.



COPS AND THEIR SUPERVISORS


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gypsy-cops-with-questionable-pasts-hired-by-different-departments-lack-of-oversight-police/

Push to keep "gypsy cops" with questionable pasts off the streets
CBS NEWS
September 27, 2016, 6:46 AM

Play VIDEO -- Bad cops rarely fired for bad behavior


It’s been more than two years since Ferguson, Missouri erupted in violence after the police shooting death of Michael Brown. Since then, the city has agreed to overhaul its police department to restore public accountability. But there are few checks in place to keep problem cops off the streets across the nation, reports CBS News correspondent DeMarco Morgan.

They’re known as “gypsy cops” – police officers with questionable records that leave one department, only to be hired by another. One officer remains on the payroll in Ferguson, Missouri, where one woman says enough is enough.

Last November, 43-year-old Angelique Kidd was approached by police officer Eddie Boyd after a hit-and-run outside her home in Ferguson, Missouri.

“He said, ‘Well you have to get out of here, you have to go,’ or something like that, and I said, ‘What was your name?’ And that’s when he arrested me,” Kidd said.

“And why did you want to know his name?” Morgan asked.

“I felt that I needed that information because he just -- he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing,” Kidd said.

Kidd was arrested for disobeying the officer’s orders. That charge is still pending.

In December, Kidd, who is being represented by ArchCity Defenders, filed a lawsuit claiming the arrest violated her civil rights, causing her “fear, anxiety, depression” and “emotional distress.”

Kidd’s suit is the latest in a string of complaints against officer Boyd, beginning when he was employed by the St. Louis Police Department.

In 2004 and 2005, Boyd was accused of physical abuse in two separate incidents – neither of the complaints was sustained. Then in 2006, Boyd was accused of pistol-whipping a 12-year-old girl and falsifying a police report. The complaint was upheld and Boyd was demoted.

The following year, he was accused of beating a 16-year-old boy. Boyd resigned and was later acquitted.

“I mean, I’m disgusted. It’s not right for a police officer to be somewhere and have these horrible charges brought against him. And then instead of getting fired, to be allowed to resign and then come work in a different department,” Kidd said.

Just last month, retired librarian Mary Knowlton was shot and killed by Officer Lee Coel during a police role-play demonstration in Punta Gorda, Florida. Although ruled an accident, Coel was already under investigation where he allowed his K-9 to maul a cyclist during a traffic stop in 2015.

Two years before that, Coel was a rookie cop in Miramar, Florida, when he resigned amid allegations of using excessive force during an arrest caught on surveillance tape.

According to Roger Goldman, a law professor with St. Louis University and expert on police licensing, a national database is needed for police departments looking to hire.

“There is tremendous opposition by police unions to have any kind of reform,” Goldman said. “I know of many cases where the chief will agree not to say anything negative in order for that person to resign.”

Both Boyd and the Ferguson police declined our request for an interview. But in a statement to “CBS This Morning,” the department said they’ve “made important revisions” to their hiring practices, including “a psychological examination, investigation of an applicant’s prior work history, consultation with applicant’s previous employers and a criminal background check.”

“What would you like to see happen to Officer Boyd?” Morgan asked.

“I would like to see him fired. I would like that information to follow him everywhere, to where he would not be allowed to be a police officer anymore,” Kidd said.

The Department of Justice told CBS News that plans are underway to launch a nationwide database to track decertified officers. And while this is a major step on the road to police reform, experts say the biggest challenge will be to convince the nation’s estimated 18,000 police departments to participate.

It’s been more than two years since Ferguson, Missouri erupted in violence after the police shooting death of Michael Brown. Since then, the city has agreed to overhaul its police department to restore public accountability. But there are few checks in place to keep problem cops off the streets across the nation, reports CBS News correspondent DeMarco Morgan.

They’re known as “gypsy cops” – police officers with questionable records that leave one department, only to be hired by another. One officer remains on the payroll in Ferguson, Missouri, where one woman says enough is enough.

Last November, 43-year-old Angelique Kidd was approached by police officer Eddie Boyd after a hit-and-run outside her home in Ferguson, Missouri.

“He said, ‘Well you have to get out of here, you have to go,’ or something like that, and I said, ‘What was your name?’ And that’s when he arrested me,” Kidd said.

“And why did you want to know his name?” Morgan asked.

“I felt that I needed that information because he just -- he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to be doing,” Kidd said.

Kidd was arrested for disobeying the officer’s orders. That charge is still pending.

In December, Kidd, who is being represented by ArchCity Defenders, filed a lawsuit claiming the arrest violated her civil rights, causing her “fear, anxiety, depression” and “emotional distress.”

Kidd’s suit is the latest in a string of complaints against officer Boyd, beginning when he was employed by the St. Louis Police Department.

In 2004 and 2005, Boyd was accused of physical abuse in two separate incidents – neither of the complaints was sustained. Then in 2006, Boyd was accused of pistol-whipping a 12-year-old girl and falsifying a police report. The complaint was upheld and Boyd was demoted.

The following year, he was accused of beating a 16-year-old boy. Boyd resigned and was later acquitted.

“I mean, I’m disgusted. It’s not right for a police officer to be somewhere and have these horrible charges brought against him. And then instead of getting fired, to be allowed to resign and then come work in a different department,” Kidd said.

Just last month, retired librarian Mary Knowlton was shot and killed by Officer Lee Coel during a police role-play demonstration in Punta Gorda, Florida. Although ruled an accident, Coel was already under investigation where he allowed his K-9 to maul a cyclist during a traffic stop in 2015.

Two years before that, Coel was a rookie cop in Miramar, Florida, when he resigned amid allegations of using excessive force during an arrest caught on surveillance tape.

According to Roger Goldman, a law professor with St. Louis University and expert on police licensing, a national database is needed for police departments looking to hire.

“There is tremendous opposition by police unions to have any kind of reform,” Goldman said. “I know of many cases where the chief will agree not to say anything negative in order for that person to resign.”

Both Boyd and the Ferguson police declined our request for an interview. But in a statement to “CBS This Morning,” the department said they’ve “made important revisions” to their hiring practices, including “a psychological examination, investigation of an applicant’s prior work history, consultation with applicant’s previous employers and a criminal background check.”

“What would you like to see happen to Officer Boyd?” Morgan asked.

“I would like to see him fired. I would like that information to follow him everywhere, to where he would not be allowed to be a police officer anymore,” Kidd said.

The Department of Justice told CBS News that plans are underway to launch a nationwide database to track decertified officers. And while this is a major step on the road to police reform, experts say the biggest challenge will be to convince the nation’s estimated 18,000 police departments to participate.


COP BLOCK ON “I FEARED FOR MY LIFE”


http://www.copblock.org/154635/feared-for-my-life/

Who Said It, Cowards or Heroes? – I Feared For My Life
FEBRUARY 22, 2016 BY JOSHUA SCOTT HOTCHKIN

Police and their syCOPhantic supporters sure do a lot of double-talking. The inconsistencies in their message are legion. Yet to me, no hypocrisy in these regards is as telling as the narrative that killer cops are heroes who just feared for their lives. You really cannot have it both ways. A hero puts the safety of others before themselves and a coward kills at the first hint of potential danger to themselves.

In a recent article I shared the following hypothetical message that potential LEO’s should be willing to accept and share with their loved ones if their intention was truly to keep their communities peaceful and safe, and not just take home a paycheck for organized bullying.

Dear Family,

I have chosen a career as a police officer because I firmly believe in protecting every single member of our community. My love for my fellow humans and for this place is such that I would gladly lay down my own life to protect any one of these people. And I will never kill one of these people in order to save my own hide, but only to protect other community members from violence when I am certain the danger exists and there is absolutely no other option. My life is no more important than anyone else’s and neither is yours. While I am far less likely to die than people working in almost twenty more dangerous careers, it does remain a distinct possibility. No matter what happens, I want you to be proud of me for sticking to my ideas until the end. If I die in the service of my fellow humans, then it will be an honorable death, and the end of a life worth living. Because that is what gives our lives value- our ideas, our morals, our values, and the courage and determination to stand by them in the face of any danger. If I ever forget that, then please remind me, because going out there every day with such tremendous power is a responsibility that should not be tasked to the faint of heart or weak of will.

I understand that even a hero fears for their own safety and life. The distinction, though, is that a hero pushes that fear away out of concern for the safety and lives of others first and foremost. Many people who have been called heroes in the past have responded to questions about whether or not they were afraid by responding that they didn’t have time to be afraid, as they needed all of their concentration to focus on doing the right thing in a difficult circumstance. The fear went unnoticed until their bravery had succeeded.

So why are so many cops drudging up the tiresome ‘I feared for my life’ when justifying killing civilians who, at least as often as not, did not need to die at the hands of police?

One reason is that cops are being trained to fear for their lives. An overabundance of conditioning is hard-wiring a fearful response into the minds of officers. They are given conditions in which they are taught it is justifiable to use excessive force, based only on certain requirements, and not the compassion or reason you would hope cops exercised before mindlessly conditioned responses. This is from another recent article:

Every situation police respond to is, in some way or another, a human situation. The last thing we need are for the people who are responding to difficult human situations to be people who have been conditioned through their training to put their humanity aside and think only within the narrow confines of the role they have been assigned using only the pre-ordained responses absorbed through training. Difficult human situations require a response by people thinking like a person, not a mystical authority figure thinking like a mystical authority figure. The training we are giving cops as a society and professionally has created a machine which chews up human beings and spits them back out either broken or dead.

The other main reason can be explained by the old adage: “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

It is also just as true to say that: “Absolute power attracts the corruption-prone.”




US, RUSSIA, CHINA --- WWIII SOON?


http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-russia-diplomacy-in-crisis-something-very-serious-transpired-over-syria-behind-the-scenes/5548073

US-Russia Diplomacy in Crisis: “Something Very Serious Transpired” Over Syria, “Behind the Scenes”
By Sputnik
Global Research, September 27, 2016
Sputnik 27 September 2016


The current “level of violence in verbal attacks” on Russia at the UN is unprecedented,” Gilbert Doctorow, European Coordinator for the American Committee for East West Accord told Radio Sputnik, adding that this seems to indicate that something grave must have happened between the two countries with regard to Syria behind the scenes.

The United States and Russia have lashed at each other over the Syrian conflict, with Washington and Moscow trading blows at the urgent UN Security Council meeting on Sunday.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, who has never been known “for her diplomatic talent,” as Doctorow put it, accused Russia of “barbarism” in Syria. She added that Moscow and Damascus ostensibly “make war” instead of “pursuing peace.” She also blamed both governments for “bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive.”

“We reached a new low,” the analyst said.

Doctorow described the US’ behavior at the UN as “rude.” He also noted that such rhetoric has been absent from the UN Security Council meetings for decades. We have not seen “this level of open hostility and direct name calling” since 1985.

“The violence of this, the extreme hostility implicit in these actions suggests that something more is going on between the two sides than we find on the front pages of the newspapers,” the analyst observed. Latest developments seem to point that “something very serious has transpired between Russia, the United States and its closes allies over Syria – far more serious than what has been in the public domain.”

Doctorow further said that the US-coalition airstrike on the Syrian Arab Army in Deir ez-Zor and the SAA resuming air raids in Aleppo are not sufficient to explain this level of verbal hostility.

On Monday, Damascus said that the Syrian intelligence services have an audio recoding of communications between US forces and Daesh prior to Deir ez-Zor attack that claimed the lives of at least 62 Syrian servicemen on September 17.

“It could be true, but it will have no implications because truth is the least of the factors on the playing field today,” the analyst noted.

Doctorow recalled that the Western media did not cover the Russian Defense Ministry’s press briefing over Daesh’s illegal oil trade with Turkey.

Ammunition and ‘Guns of Hell’: Rare Glimpse of Handarat Camp in Aleppo “That was dramatic. It was a fantastic demonstration. What was the result? Zero. There was no coverage in the Western press although all of NATO military attaches in Moscow were scribbling furiously and taking as many photos of the Russian flights as they could,” he said.

In Doctorow’s opinion, the Syrians and the Russians “can prove anything they like,” but mainstream media in the West will “totally” ignore it. “That is a sad fact today. This is why force and not diplomacy seems to be resolving the question or seems to be addressing the question of what future Syria has. Diplomacy has only been decorative.”

The original source of this article is Sputnik
Copyright © Sputnik, Sputnik, 2016



https://theinternationalreporter.org/2016/09/26/us-slams-russian-barbarism-in-syria-moscow-responds-peace-almost-impossible-now/

US Slams Russian “Barbarism” In Syria; Moscow Responds Peace “Almost Impossible Now”
Editor / 1 day ago – September 26, 2016

Just three weeks after yet another “landmark” Syria peace deal was signed, the agreement is not only in tatters but the war drums are beating louder than ever before after the US slammed Russia’s action in Syria as “barbarism,” not counter-terrorism, while Moscow’s U.N. envoy said ending the war “is almost an impossible task now” as Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow, bombed the city of Aleppo.

from Zero Hedge:

maria-zakharova-57de9153c461888e258b467bAs Reuters reported overnight, the UN Security Council met on Sunday at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the escalation of fighting in Aleppo following the announcement on Thursday of an offensive by the Syrian army to retake the city. “What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the 15-member council.

“Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” Power said.

As reported previously, the September 9 ceasefire deal between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov aimed at putting Syria’s peace process back on track effectively collapsed in what may be a record short period of time last Monday when an aid convoy was bombed. Russsia [sic] and the US have both accused each other of being the party responsible behind the bombinb. [sic]

“In Syria hundreds of armed groups are being armed, the territory of the country is being bombed indiscriminately and bringing a peace is almost an impossible task now because of this,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council. Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said on Sunday the U.S. and Russian bid to bring peace to Syria “is very, very near the end of its life and yes the Security Council needs to be ready to fulfill our responsibilities.”

“The regime and Russia have instead plunged to new depths and unleashed a new hell on Aleppo,”Rycroft told the council. “Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes.”

However, any attempts to “rein in” Russia are doomed to fail as the country is one of five veto-powers on the council, along with the United States, France, Britain and China. Russia and China have protected Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government by blocking several attempts at council action.

Unfazed by the logistical impossibility of the UN to actually do anything, Power said that “It is time to say who is carrying out those air strikes and who is killing civilians. Russia holds a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. This is a privilege and it is a responsibility. Yet in Syria and in Aleppo, Russia is abusing this historic privilege.”

As Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari began addressing the council, Power, Rycroft and French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre walked out of the chamber, diplomats said. “Any political solution can only be successful by providing the requisite conditions through intensified efforts to fight terrorism,” Ja’afari told the council. “The real war on terrorism has never started yet. The advent of Syrian victory is imminent.”

* * *
Meanwhile, as the peace process has completely fallen apart, the bombing campaign of Aleppo has resumed.According to the WSJ, Syria and its Russian allies pressed an assault on Aleppo amid what the United Nations called the most intense bombing in years of warfare there, and residents said hundreds of civilians have been killed since a cease-fire fell apart last week. The surge in deaths came as a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend cited reports of “bunker buster bombs.” The bombs have left large craters in the rebel-held part of the divided city, Aleppo residents said, and caused shock waves felt blocks away from the point of impact.

Rebels and opposition leaders blamed Russia, Syria’s key ally, for the bunker-buster bombs. The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. “The first time one struck, everyone thought there was an earthquake,” said Muhammad al-Zein, who helps oversee hospitals in the rebel-held part of Aleppo. “But the next day another one hit and we realized it was not an earthquake.”

President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake all of Aleppo and the offensive was the latest indication that he aims to win the war militarily despite repeated efforts by the U.S. and Russia to reach a lasting cease-fire and a diplomatic solution. Syrian state media reported that the army on Saturday seized control of an area north of Aleppo city called Handarat Camp. Within hours, rebels said they had retaken the territory.

With the Syrian war once again front and center, and this time the possibility of a Chinese intervention – on the side of the Assad regime all too real – the recent warning by a Syrian politican that World War III has started in Syria suddenly does not appear too far fetched.



EXCERPT -- “Meanwhile, as the peace process has completely fallen apart, the bombing campaign of Aleppo has resumed. According to the WSJ, Syria and its Russian allies pressed an assault on Aleppo amid what the United Nations called the most intense bombing in years of warfare there, and residents said hundreds of civilians have been killed since a cease-fire fell apart last week. The surge in deaths came as a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend cited reports of “bunker buster bombs.” The bombs have left large craters in the rebel-held part of the divided city, Aleppo residents said, and caused shock waves felt blocks away from the point of impact. . . . Rebels and opposition leaders blamed Russia, Syria’s key ally, for the bunker-buster bombs. The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. . . . . President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake all of Aleppo and the offensive was the latest indication that he aims to win the war militarily despite repeated efforts by the U.S. and Russia to reach a lasting cease-fire and a diplomatic solution. Syrian state media reported that the army on Saturday seized control of an area north of Aleppo city called Handarat Camp. Within hours, rebels said they had retaken the territory. With the Syrian war once again front and center, and this time the possibility of a Chinese intervention – on the side of the Assad regime all too real – the recent warning by a Syrian politican [sic] that World War III has started in Syria suddenly does not appear too far fetched.”



This frightening situation in Syria and other parts of the world – changes in Europe with Rightist forces taking over again -- really could be described as a WWIII, and all the little groups that mutually hate each other, and the large world powers who want oil fields and territorial/ethnic control of as much of the world as they can grab, may very well be embroiled already in a true world war, as the anonymous Syrian politician mentioned above said. To me, it doesn’t have the same scale as WWII, however, but that could change in a blinking of an eye if a spark is lit.

Both Russia and the US and probably China already have used bunker busting bombs, and those, according to an article I just glanced at, are in fact “tactical nukes.” As Walter Miller prophetically said around 1950, “Lucifer has fallen.” I feel as though my personal life is circling around at a dizzying speed, and I’m back at the beginning again.

For a tactical nuke demonstration, see this Youtube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObN0sZ9GYQA, and for your edification and sheer pleasure, read Miller’s great futuristic novel “A Canticle For Leibowitz.”

To change to a slightly less pessimistic view, read this 60 minutes article below. It doesn’t actually state that WWIII “has already started.”


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-perspective-on-the-new-cold-war/

Perspective on the "new Cold War"
A veteran reporter who covered the old Cold War discusses how a new one is brewing. David Martin talks to 60 Minutes Overtime
Sep 25, 2016

More than 30 years ago, the Cold War was David Martin’s regular beat for CBS News. Now the correspondent returns to his old beat with a disturbing two-part 60 Minutes story on how a “new Cold War” has begun.

Martin admits he hasn’t thought much about superpowers’ nuclear arsenals since Cold War tensions thawed back in the late 1980s. When headlines turned to terrorism and wars in the Middle East, the correspondent followed suit. Returning to the topic of nuclear warfare this week on 60 Minutes, Martin reports that a nuclear attack somewhere in the world is not as unlikely as most people think.

newcoldwarii-main.jpg
B-52 bomber CBS NEWS

“I came to this story comparing it to the reporting I’d done during the Cold War, and I was expecting to see something very different,” Martin said in an interview with 60 Minutes Overtime. “I was expecting a less active U.S. nuclear force, more of a standby force, and what I found was an alert force. And -- particularly since Russia invaded Crimea and since Vladimir Putin started nuclear saber-rattling -- it felt like we were back in the Cold War and that really nothing much had changed at all.”

“It felt like we were back in the Cold War and that really nothing much had changed at all.”

Martin and producer Mary Walsh got extraordinary access to America’s nuclear forces for their 60 Minutes story. The team filmed inside the bomb bay of a B-52 bomber, a nuclear submarine in the Pacific, and what’s known as the “battledeck,” an underground command center for communicating with the president in times of nuclear crisis.

The most difficult element to shoot, says Walsh, was the morning briefing for the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, Admiral Cecil Haney. That meeting, held at Strategic Command headquarters in Omaha, is classified “above top-secret,” says Walsh, and had never been filmed before.

Martin and Walsh also went aboard the USS Kentucky, a submarine capable of carrying nearly 200 nuclear warheads and whose top-secret location is a matter of national security. Filming inside the submarine, Martin and Walsh found a highly disciplined crew accustomed to speaking in hushed tones and sleeping between missile tubes which occupy approximately a third of the submarine.

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USS Kentucky CBS NEWS

At the military’s request, the 60 Minutes team took unusual precautions to help protect the location of the Kentucky[sic] as they planned logistics for filming on board. Walsh and Martin discussed details only in face-to-face meetings with the military and spoke in generalities when communicating over the phone or by email.

Walsh describes the 60 Minutes story as “The Hunt for Red October” meets “Dr. Strangelove.”

“We’ve all been fearful of the Armageddon of nuclear war,” she says. “And I think if there’s one single thing that surprised me the most in reporting this story, it is that there is a doctrine called “escalate to de-escalate.” So, if there’s a conventional war, Russia could use just one nuclear weapon, perhaps a smaller one, a “low-yield” nuclear weapon, as a way of saying, ‘Stop. We are very serious about this, and we need you to back off.’ And that’s a scenario that I had never considered.

If viewers haven’t been thinking about nukes much, they probably will after watching Martin and Walsh’s report, particularly given this year’s hotly contest presidential election.

“The one thing that stuck out for me the most,” Martin says, “which I knew back [in the 80s], but I’d never really appreciated the importance of it, is the extent to which the U.S. military goes to make sure that the president and only the president can launch nuclear weapons.”

Martin says his story served as an important reminder that “the person we elect is the person — and the only person — who can make that decision.”