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Toll from N. California’s ferocious wildfires continued to grow
As of Tuesday evening (PDT) the fires had destroyed 2,000 structures and killed at least 17 people, with more than 170 other reported as missing.
Eleven of the fatalities, and the missing reports are from Sonoma County.
Large sections of the city of Santa Rosa have been razed by the Tubbs fire, making it look like the war-stricken city of Aleppo in Syria.
At least six more fatalities have been reported in Napa, Mendocino, and Yuba Counties, Cal Fire said.
The two largest fires, the Tubbs fire and the Atlas Peak fire in Napa County, have consumed 27,000 and 25,000 acres, respectively, Cal Fire reported.
About 30,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders.
Orange County firestorm destroys 24 structures, consumes 7,500 acres
The Canyon 2 fire has forced the officials to evacuate more than 5,000 residences in three cities, and close down at least 9 schools.
California Statewide Fire Summary
Tuesday, October 10, 2017 PDT [CAL FIRE]
“17 large wildfires that started in the past 24 hours continue to burn across California and have burned over 115,000 acres. The winds that fanned these fires Sunday night and Monday morning have decreased significantly, but local winds and dry conditions continue to pose a challenge. With the decrease in the winds combined with cooler weather, firefighters made good progress overnight. Sheriff officials have confirmed that 11 people have died as a result of the wildfires in Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa and Yuba counties. These fires have already burned an estimated 1,500 homes and commercial structures. Several Damage Assessment Teams have been deployed to get a full account of the destruction.
“Yesterday Governor Brown declared a State of Emergency in Napa, Sonoma, and Yuba Counties, as well as a State of Emergency in Butte, Lake, Mendocino, Nevada and Orange counties.
“Red Flag Warnings in Southern California due to gusty winds and high fire risk remain in place, but are expected to end later this morning. The warnings in Northern California have all ended, but breezy and dry conditions remain.”
The FIRE-EARTH Tribunal in Absentia for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Committed in Middle East and North Africa [VI]
CJ Reaches a Unanimous Verdict on the Persons Responsible for War Crimes in Middle East and N. Africa
The C-Jury has convicted 415 persons from 14 countries of various counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, the mass murders in the United States on September 11, and the extra-judicial killings conducted by drones in Pakistan.
Background:
The Fire-Earth Tribunal in Absentia for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Committed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria starting 2011, the mass murders on September 11 in the United States, and the extra-judicial killings by drones in Pakistan.
The convicts include former and incumbent presidents, heads of states, government officials, politicians, military personnel and other persons.
Additional charges were brought against the persons responsible for the murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in Afghanistan on October 26, 2009.
Mass murder of innocent kids doesn’t really concern the deranged conman in WH — it’s just a useful pretext to start war
Saudi Arabian forces, using weapons bought from the US and UK, have mass murdered more than 10,000 civilians including 1,500 innocent children, and injured at least 20,000 others including 2,500 children, since the conflict began three years ago.
Background:
The US Administration, far from showing any concern for the lives of innocent children in Yemen, continues to ship billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Saudi war criminals.
Meanwhile, the White House appears to be planning another attack on the legitimate government of Syria, using a potential chemical weapons attack on “innocent children” as a pretext for war. The White House said in a statement:
“The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children. The activities are similar to preparations the regime made before its April 4, 2017 chemical weapons attack.
“As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. If, however, Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.”
[Prepared by an affiliated team of political scientists]
United States “preparing for a new cynical and unprecedented provocation” to attack Syria –Senior Russian Lawmaker
Background:
The White House has accused President Assad of Syria of potentially preparing “another chemical weapons attack,” warning that he would “pay a heavy price,” should he proceed.
Kremlin spokesman said: “I am not aware of any information about a threat that chemical weapons could be used. Certainly, we consider such threats to the legitimate leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic unacceptable. We also consider any similar threats to the legitimate leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic unacceptable.”
A senior Russian lawmaker has accused the United States of “preparing for a new cynical and unprecedented provocation” to attack Syria.
Syrian Information Minister said: “This American show — not the first and not the last one — is a series played by the US administration, with threats of aggression against Syria. Trump’s administration uses the pretext of a chemical attack to save its American-Zionist project in the region.”
[Prepared by an affiliated team of political scientists.]
95% of terrorists fighting Syrian government are foreigners: Germany’s Intelligence Service (BND)
Flood of weapons and entry of 20,000 foreign fighters into Syria “largely defined nature of conflict”
“Three-term Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a member of both the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, has proposed legislation that would prohibit any U.S. assistance to terrorist organizations in Syria as well as to any organization working directly with them. Equally important, it would prohibit U.S. military sales and other forms of military cooperation with other countries that provide arms or financing to those terrorists and their collaborators,” a report said.
“Gabbard’s ‘Stop Arming Terrorists Act’ challenges for the first time in Congress a U.S. policy toward the conflict in the Syrian civil war that should have set off alarm bells long ago: in 2012-13 the Obama administration helped its Sunni allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar provide arms to Syrian and non-Syrian armed groups to force President Bashar al-Assad out of power. And in 2013 the administration began to provide arms to what the CIA judged to be ‘relatively moderate’ anti-Assad groups—meaning they incorporated various degrees of Islamic extremism.”
“… as much as 8,000 tons of weapons poured across the Turkish border into Syria just in late 2012 and in 2013.”
Weapons were purchased Belgrade, Serbia in May 2013 including “500 Soviet-designed PG-7VR rocket launchers that can penetrate even heavily-armored tanks, along with two million rounds; 50 Konkurs anti-tank missile launchers and 500 missiles, 50 anti-aircraft guns mounted on armored vehicles, 10,000 fragmentation rounds for OG-7 rocket launchers capable of piercing heavy body armor; four truck-mounted BM-21 GRAD multiple rocket launchers, each of which fires 40 rockets at a time with a range of 12 to 19 miles, along with 20,000 GRAD rockets.”
“… another Saudi order from the same Serbian company listed 300 tanks, 2,000 RPG launchers, and 16,500 other rocket launchers, one million rounds for ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, and 315 million cartridges for various other guns.”
“This flood of weapons into Syria, along with the entry of 20,000 foreign fighters into the country—primarily through Turkey—largely defined the nature of the conflict. These armaments helped make al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, al Nusra Front (now renamed Tahrir al-Sham or Levant Liberation Organization) and its close allies by far the most powerful anti-Assad forces in Syria—and gave rise to the Islamic State.”
Who told “peaceful demonstrators” to destroy Syrian air defense?
“At the very beginning of the attacks, they [terrorists] started by destroying the Syrian air defense, which has nothing to do with what they called it that time the ‘peaceful demonstrations.’ Most of the air defense are outside the cities in outlying areas, so they started attacking that air defense and it was affected dramatically during the crisis,” said Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Most Lucrative War Racket Ever: $4.8 Trillion and Counting
A call to indict US and UK governments for war crimes, crimes against humanity and Grand Theft of $4.8 trillion of taxpayers money.
[Prepared by an affiliated team of political scientists.]
Report available from FIRE-EARTH PULSARS.
Background:
“US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion and Counting – Summary of Costs of the US Wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Homeland Security
“As of August 2016, the US has already appropriated, spent, or taken on obligations to spend more than $3.6 trillion in current dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and on Homeland Security (2001 through fiscal year 2016). To this total should be added the approximately $65 billion in dedicated war spending the Department of Defense and State Department have requested for the next fiscal year, 2017, along with an additional nearly $32 billion requested for the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, and estimated spending on veterans in future years. When those are included, the total US budgetary cost of the wars reaches $4.79 trillion.” [That’s about $15,000 for every man, woman, child, and illegal immigrant in the country.]
Global forced displacement escalate sharply in 2015 due to ongoing conflict and persecution, “reaching the highest level ever recorded and representing immense human suffering, according to a report released today by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.”
UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report, which tracks forced displacement worldwide based on data from governments, partners including the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, and the organization’s own reporting, said 65.3 million people were displaced as of the end of 2015, compared to 59.5 million just 12 months earlier. This is the first time that the threshold of 60 million has been crossed.
Of the 65.3 million total, about comprises 3.2 million are in industrialized countries awaiting decisions (as of end 2015) on asylum (the largest total UNHCR has recorded), 21.3 million refugees worldwide (1.8 million more than in 2014 and the highest refugee total since the early 1990s), and 40.8 million were IDPs, people who forced to flee their homes but remained within the confines of their own countries (an increase of 2.6 million from 2014 and the highest number on record).
Based on Earth’s 7.349 billion population, these numbers show that 1 in every 113 people globally is currently either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee. The numbers are comparable to the 2015 populations of UK (64.7 million), France (64.4 million) and Italy (59.8 million).
Forced displacement has been on the rise since at least the mid-1990s in most regions, but over the past five years the rate of climb has increased. The reasons are threefold: Situations that cause large refugee outflows are lasting longer (for example, conflicts in Somalia or Afghanistan are now into their third and fourth decades, respectively), dramatic new or reignited situations are occurring frequently (today’s largest being Syria, but also in the space of the past five years South Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Ukraine, Central African Republic, etc.), and the rate at which solutions are being found for refugees and internally displaced people has been on a falling trend since the end of the Cold War. As recently as 10 years ago, at the end of 2005, UNHCR recorded an average of six people displaced every minute. Today that number is 24 per minute – almost double the typical frequency at which adults breathe.
“More people are being displaced by war and persecution and that’s worrying in itself, but the factors that endanger refugees are multiplying too,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year; on land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders. Politics is gravitating against asylum in some countries. The willingness of nations to work together not just for refugees but for the collective human interest is what’s being tested today, and it’s this spirit of unity that badly needs to prevail.”
Three countries produce half the world’s refugees…
Among countries covered by the Global Trends report several stand out: Syria at 4.9 million, Afghanistan at 2.7 million and Somalia at 1.1 million together accounted for more than half the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate worldwide. Colombia at 6.9 million, Syria at 6.6 million, and Iraq at 4.4 million meanwhile had the largest numbers of internally displaced people. Yemen was the biggest producer of new internal displacement in 2015 – 2.5 million people, or 9 per cent of its population.
Half the world’s refugees are children
Children constituted 51 per cent of the world’s refugees in 2015 according to the data UNHCR was able to gather (complete demographic data was not available to the report authors). Worryingly, many were separated from their parents or travelling alone. In all there were 98,400 asylum requests from children who were unaccompanied or separated from their families. This is the highest total UNHCR has seen – and a tragic reflection of how global forced displacement is disproportionately affecting young lives.
Additional Information
UNHCR’s Global Trends Report is being released on World Refugee Day, 20 June, in conjunction with our #WithRefugees petition campaign. A full multimedia package is available in connection with the Global Trends report, including infographics, photos, video materials and other products.
Cases of Leishmaniasis up from 23,000 before the war to 41,000 in 2013: Syrian Ministry of Health
The disease is spreading across Syria, with cases also reported in Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey, according to reports.
“Between 2000 and 2012, there were only six reported cases of the disease in Lebanon.”
However, in 2013 alone, some 1,033 cases were reported in Southern Lebanon, of which 96 per cent occurred among the displaced Syrian refugees, the Lebanese Ministry of Health has said.
Refugee settlements in Nizip, southern Turkey, have reported several hundred cases of the disease.
Speaking to Mail Online, Dr Waleed Al-Salem, one of the authors of the research was carried out in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: ‘It’s a very bad situation. The disease has spread dramatically in Syria, but also into countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and even into southern Europe with refugees coming in.
‘There are thousands of cases in the region but it is still underestimated because no one can count the exact number of people affected.
‘When people are bitten by a sand-fly – which are tiny and smaller than a mosquito – it can take anything between two to six months to have the infection.
‘So someone might have picked it up in Syria but then they may have fled into Lebanon or Turkey, oreven into Europe as they seek refuge.
‘Prior to the outbreak of war there was good control of diseases, parasites and sand flies but when the conflict started no one cared, conditions worsened and the health system broke down, which has created an ideal environment for disease outbreaks.’
Of course, it wasn’t that “no one cared.” It was that no one was able to provide adequate care because the United States, Israel, the GCC, and NATO had overrun the country with savage terrorists and destroyed the infrastructure, not to mention the Western sanctions imposed upon the country which, alone, would have made it difficult to treat.
“Saudi firms are using IP addresses purchased from the British government to spread ISIS propaganda on Twitter. Meanwhile, activists who try to get these accounts removed are themselves banned.”
The British government allegedly sold a larger amount of IP addresses to “two Saudi firms,” which explains why ISIS uses IP addresses that can be traced back to the British government.
“Google in 2012 sought to help insurgents overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to State Department emails receiving fresh scrutiny this week.”
“Please keep close hold, but my team is planning to launch a tool … that will publicly track and map the defections in Syria and which parts of the government they are coming from,” Jared Cohen, the head of what was then the company’s “Google Ideas” division, wrote in a July 2012 email to several top Clinton officials.
Some 39 migrants/refugees, including at least 10 children, from three countries drowned in the Aegean Sea on the five-mile journey from Turkey to Greece on Saturday. The victims were from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Syria, said reports.
A Turkish gendarme is about to throw the body of a migrant child into a body bag on January 30, 2016. Some 39 migrants, including at least 10 children, drowned when their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea on the way from Turkey to Greece. [Image source: pptzw.com.cn. image may be subject to copyright.]
Genocide is being committed against people of Syria by all those who destabilized the country
In 2010, there were no Syrian refugees drowning in the Mediterranean while escaping the Wahhabi block terrorists. Even polio had long been eradicated across the country…
When President Barack Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the CIA has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. —Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo
U.S. officials have not disclosed the amount of the Saudi contribution, which is by far the largest from another nation to the program to arm the rebels against President Bashar Assad’s military. But estimates have put the total cost of the arming and training effort at several billion dollars.
Since 2011, more than 250,000 people have been killed, well over a million injured, and 6.5 million internally displaced within Syria. About 4.6 million refugees, and most of the remaining population – some 13.5 million people – are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, said the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien.
At least 24 migrants including 10 children drowned in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, after their boat capsized near Greece.
In 2015, some 3,811 people were reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean, most all were migrants trying to escape war zones, poverty or persecution in their homelands, reported the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
At least 224 similar deaths have occurred so far this year, said IOM.
Highlights of a U.N. Report Last Week
ISIL launches an offensive on GoS controlled areas of Deir-Ez-Zor city causing the displacement of 3,200 families;
Unconfirmed reports of 300 civilians killed by ISIL and 400 civilians abducted
Already limited supplies of foods and other commodities are likely to diminish soon putting 200,000 individuals at risk of increased malnutrition
Those living in GoS controlled areas also face serious protection risks should ISIL take full control of the area
On 19 January, the Government of Russia announced that they dropped 40 MT of relief supplies from the air.
Meanwhile, several European countries, which feel threatened by the influx of refugees, threaten to deport tens of thousands of asylum-seekers:
800,000+ first time asylum seekers registered in EU (Jan – Sep 2015)
Citizens of 149 countries sought asylum for the first time in the EU in the third quarter of 2015. The largest number of asylum seekers came from Syria (138,000), Afghanistan (56,700) and Iraq (44,400), eurostat reported.
The number of asylum-seekers in the EU-28 during the third quarter of 2015 reached 430,600 (i.e. including repeat applicants), reported eurostat. This was 250,400 more than Q3 of 2014. Some 413,800 of the asylum applicants (96 %) were first time applicants.
The number of Syrians and Iraqis seeking international protection more than
tripled in Q3 of 2015 compared with the previous quarter, reaching about 138,000 and 44,500 respectively; while the number of Afghans applicants doubled to more than 56,500, said the report.
“Asylum applicants from Iraq (11 times more) recorded the most substantial relative increase in the EU in the third quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter of 2014 followed by Albanians (nearly 8 times more), Afghanis (almost 6 times more), Pakistanis (4 times more) and Syrians (3 times more).”
The highest number of first time asylum applicants in Q3 of 2015 registered in Germany and Hungary (both with just over 108,000 applicants, or 26% each of total applicants in the EU Member States), followed by Sweden (42,500, or 10%), Italy (28,400, or 7%) and Austria (27,600, or 7%). These 5 Member States together account for more than 75% of all first time applicants in the EU-28.
About 33% of first-time asylum seekers originated from Syria.
More than 410 000 first time asylum seekers registered in the third quarter of 2015.
Over 210 000 first time asylum seekers in the EU in the second quarter of 2015.
At least 185 000 first time asylum seekers in the EU in the first quarter of 2015.
At the end of September 2015, more than 808,000 applications for asylum protection in the EU Member States were still under consideration by the responsible national authority.
[Note: First time applicant for international protection is a person who lodges an application for asylum for the first time in an EU-28 Member State.]
Daesh imposes death sentence on occupied communities
The potentially deadly “flesh-eating” disease named leishmaniasis is rapidly spreading in Syria, caused by the sand flies feeding on the corpses dumped in the streets by Daesh (aka, ISIS, ISIL), the head of the Kurdish Red Crescent told Rudaw news.
“As a result of abominable acts by ISIS that included the killing of innocent people and dumping their corpses in streets, this is the leading factor behind the rapid spread of Leishmanisis disease,” said Dilqash Isa.
Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that is caused by infection with Leishmania parasites, which are spread by the bite of phlebotomine sand flies. There are several different forms of leishmaniasis in people. The most common forms are cutaneous leishmaniasis, which causes skin sores, and visceral leishmaniasis, which affects several internal organs (usually spleen, liver, and bone marrow), according to CDC.
The sand flies that transmit the parasite are only about one third the size of typical mosquitoes or even smaller.
“Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in many of the poorest countries of all continents. “Aleppo boil” is one of the recognised names given to this disease in the medical literature. Although CL used to be well-controlled and well-documented in Syria, its incidence has dramatically increased since the beginning of the war,” said a report.
“Currently, an outbreak has been observed due to the war in Syria and the lack of measures to combat the disease, particularly in the besieged and medically underserved areas. New publications from the Ministry of Health reveal shocking statistics. There was an incidence rate of 53,000 cases in 2012 and 41,000 cases were reported in the first 2 quarters of 2013 (13). According to a recent telephone conversation with the head of the Leishmaniasis Centre in Aleppo (Dr. Ahmad Jatal, personal communication), 22,365 cases were reported in the previous year in Aleppo alone.”
The symptoms of leishmaniasis are skin sores which erupt weeks to months after the person affected is bitten by sand flies. Other consequences, which can manifest anywhere from a few months to years after infection, include fever, damage to the spleen and liver, and anemia.
[Honey, smile for uncle Salman, cousin Obama and his family. —Editor]
Girl affected by lieshmaniasis. Photo taken in Ferdaws area of Aleppo by Syrian American Kenan Rahmani (via Rudaw).
The “NATO-protected” ISIL targets that coalition airstrikes in Syria avoided for more than 14 months
Media briefing “Russian Federation Armed Forces fighting against international terrorism. New data”
Satellite and aerial images taken on November 14, show 3,722 oil tankers, trucks and trailers waiting to carry oil stolen by ISIL, Al–Nusra Front and affiliated terrorist groups into Turkey, says the report.
“The fleet of terrorist [vehicles] features up to 8,500 tanker trucks which transport up to 200,000 barrels of oil daily [into Turkey.]”
Hundreds of oil tanker trucks cross the Turkey-Syria border each day, carrying oil stolen by the terrorists to the Batman refinery in Turkey.
Some of the oil, stolen from both Iraq and Turkey, is transported to two of Turkey’s Mediterranean ports and from there exported to other countries.
ISIL rakes in about three million dollars per day from the illegal oil trade, said the report.
UPDATE: The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the Russian Su-24 military plane was shot down by a Turkish F-16 over Syrian territory. The plane was attacked while returning to Khmeimim airbase, said the Ministry, adding that the plane did not violate Turkish air space.
Report compiled by a reader
Turkey says it shot down Russian warplane
Excerpts from various reports
Turkish military: The Russian pilot had been warned at least 10 times over five minutes the plane had violated Turkish airspace. Two of F-16 fighter jets shot down the plane.
Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu: Turkey has the right to respond to violations of its airspace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin: Turkey has stabbed Russia in the back by shooting down our warplane. They have acted as an accomplice to the terrorists. The plane was flying 1 km away from the Turkish border and posed no threat to Turkish national security.
Russia noticed of the flow of oil from Syrian territory under the control of terrorists to Turkey, Putin said.
Apparently, IS now not only receives revenue from the smuggling of oil, but also has the protection of a nation’s military, Putin said. This may explain why the terrorist group is so bold in taking acts of terrorism across the world, he added.
The incident will have grave consequences for Russia’s relations with Turkey, Putin warned.
The fact that Turkey did not try to contact Russia in the wake of the incident and rushed to call a NATO meeting instead is worrisome, Putin said. It appears that Turkey want NATO to serve the interests of IS, he added.
Putin said Russia respects the regional interests of other nations, but warned the atrocity committed by Turkey would not go without an answer
Russian Defense Ministry: A Russian Su-24 fighter has been shot down in Syria. The aircraft was flying at the altitude of 6,000 meters within the Syrian airspace.
“Today an aircraft from the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic crashed on the territory of Syria supposedly shot down from the ground.”
“During all the flight time, the aircraft was flying only within the borders of the Syrian territory. That was registered by objective monitoring data.”
MSM: Footage posted online allegedly shows Russian pilots from the downed jet laying motionless, possibly dead on the ground and surrounded by Syrian Turkmens.
UK Foreign Office: “Clearly this is a very serious incident, but it would be unwise to comment further until we have more certainty on the facts.”
Internet: Turkish PM has requested extraordinary NATO council meeting to inform members of downing of Russian jet. Meeting scheduled for 5pm Brussels time.
History: This was the first time a NATO country has shot down a Russian or Soviet war plane since the 1950s.
Added by Moderator
Francois Hollande: Was it something I said? The French President had called for both Washington and Moscow to set aside their policy divisions over Syria and “fight this terrorist army in a broad, single coalition.” Unknown to him, those “policy divisions” are clearly irreconcilable.
US-led air campaign spared Islamic States’ most lucrative source of income for 14 months
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that the Islamic State terrorists are being financed from 40 countries, including a number of G20 countries. Putin has reportedly shared “intelligence” with other G20 members, but he has not publicly revealed the list of the nations that sponsor terrorism.
Additionally, the terrorists have raked in about $50 million per month from “the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products.”
“I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL, locally daesh) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told reporters.
In addition to the need to cut off the flow of funds to ISIS, Putin has also stressed the need to stop the lucrative oil trade by IS.
“I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.
“The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon.”
The Islamic State earns about $50 million a month in illegal crude oil sales from occupied oilfields in Iraq and Syria (an estimated 30,000 barrels per day in Syria and 20,000 in Iraq), “part of a well-run industry that U.S. diplomacy and airstrikes have so far failed to shut down, according to Iraqi intelligence and U.S. officials,” said a report.
“Oil sales—the extremists’ largest single source of continual income—are a key reason they have been able to maintain their rule over their self-declared ‘caliphate’ stretching across large parts of Syria and Iraq. With the funds to rebuild infrastructure and provide the largesse that shore up its fighters’ loyalty, it has been able to withstand ground fighting against its opponents and more than a year of bombardment in the U.S.-led air campaign.”
Why have the U.S. military & Co. spared the Islamic States’ most important source of income?
Wondering when the taxpayers would start asking the same question, the US warplanes reportedly targeted the oil trucks on Monday (Nov. 16, 2015), for the first time since the Syria air campaign began about 14 months ago.
“United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said,” according to a report.
“According to an initial assessment, 116 trucks were destroyed in the attack, which took place near Deir al-Zour, an area in eastern Syria that is controlled by the Islamic State.”
[The above report has not been verified independently, as of receiving this submission. Editor]
G20 Members
United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Indonesia, India, Germany, France, China, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina, and European Union.
Syria Airstrikes Contributing Countries
United States of America (Leader), United Kingdom (currently limited, but could change anytime) United Arab Emirates (see Saudi Arabia), Turkey (Turkish involvement has so far been limited to bombing the Kurdish fighters, who are currently the only effective force against the Islamic State), Saudi Arabia (members of the Saudi Royal Family are the World’s biggest sponsors of terrorism), Qatar (see Saudi Arabia), Jordan (always desperate to appease its sponsors), France, Canada, Bahrain (see Saudi Arabia), and Australia.
Countries whose Arms Industries Benefit most from Terrorism (Paris Attacks)
United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Israel, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Canada.
Greece records highest migration inflows so far this year: IOM
Between January 1 and October 21, 2015 some 680,928 refugees and migrants crossed the the Mediterranean Sea, arriving in Greece (537,460), Italy (139,518), Malta (105) and Spain (3,845). Some 3,175 people perished in the Mediterranean (estimated global toll stood at 4,480 dead).
About 50,000 refugees and migrants crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands in the past five days alone, reported IOM International.
During the same period, “18 migrants are believed to have lost their lives in two incidents – one on October 19th off the coast of Megisti, the other on October 21st off the coast of Samos.”
“In the shipwreck off Samos, the Hellenic Coast Guard rescued a 32-year-old Syrian, but 14 others, including his wife, two children and other relatives are missing, believed drowned.
“Meanwhile in Italy, so far in the month of October a total of 7,447 migrants have been rescued at sea in the Channel of Sicily. No deaths have been recorded since eight bodies (seven women; one man) were shipped on Monday into Taranto, brought by the Spanish ship Rio Segura, which carried another 633 survivors. Authorities discovered the eight victims in a rubber dinghy carrying 113 migrants. Their cause of death remains unknown,” said the report.
Severe drought killing scores of people in southern Madagascar
Drought is killing up to ten people per day in one southern Madagascar municipality alone.
“The death varies from two to ten per day due to drought in our area,” Bernard Tolia, mayor of Anjapaly, told China’s Xinhua news.
“A dozen mayors from south including me alerted the government on Monday to look more closely the situation in our area,” he said.
“It has been almost a year that there was no rain. People have to travel 15 kilometers, often by feet, to find drinking water; livestock is suffering and die while cultivation is impossible due to drought.”
Adverse weather conditions are also affecting crop production elsewhere in southern Africa including southern Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa, according to various relief agencies.
The negative impact of extreme weather events is threatening food security for an estimated 27.5 million people across the region, especially in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Botswana is experiencing “the worst drought conditions in 30 years with agricultural land badly hit by the lack of irrigation,” AFP reported the government as saying.
South Africa’s 2015 maize production decreased by a third compared with 2014 harvest, due to poor rains, GIEWS reported.
In Malawi, “2,833,212 people will not be able to meet their annual food requirement. In view of this I would like to appeal to all the development partners, other countries, and non-governmental organizations both in Malawi and elsewhere to complement government sources in assisting the food-insecure households,” said the president.
An estimated 1.5 million Zimbabweans (16% of rural households) will be unable to meet their food needs during the 2015/2016 hunger season, some 462,000 in the second quarter of the consumption year and 1,490,024 during the peak hunger season (from January-March, 2016). “This represents a rise of 160% compared to those facing food insecurity during the 2014/2015 hunger season,” according to UNOCHA, and UNRC.
Hunger Emergencies
The World Food Program (WFP) says it’s currently facing six emergencies simultaneously in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, South Sudan, Nepal and Ebola affected regions in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Iraq
The humanitarian situation in Iraq is deteriorating amid rising violence, with more than 3.2 million people fleeing their homes since January 2014, UNOCHA reports.
Humanitarian Disaster Stats
No. of people in need 8.6m
No. of internally displaced people 3.2m
No. of people who live outside camps 2.9m
No. of affected people in host communities 3.2m
No. of Syrian refugees 0.25m
More than 432,000 refugees, migrants arrive in Europe by sea since January, with 2,748 recorded fatalities
An estimated 432,761 asylum-seeking refugees and migrants have reached Europe by sea in 2015 so far this year (as of September 10, 2015), reported the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “This figure is double the amount of arrivals in the Mediterranean for the entire 2014, emphasizing the scale of the current migration emergency.”
About 70% of the arrivals were registered in Greece (309,356 people), and 28% in Italy (121,139 people). At least 2,748 migrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea (year to September 10), while 2,223 migrant deaths were recorded in 2014, according to Missing Migrants*.
Greece, the largest arrival portal, registered about 246,000 people: over 70% came from Syria alone (175,375), while the other main countries of origin were Afghanistan (50,177), Pakistan (11,289), and Iraq (9,059) between January 1 and August 31. (Additionally, more than 50,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece since the beginning of September, IOM estimates).
Italy recorded 116,149 arrivals during the same period—a 3% increase compared with last year—with the bulk of refugees and migrants coming from Eritrea (30,708), Nigeria (15,113), Somalia (8,790), Sudan (7,126), Syria (6,710), and Gambia (5,514), said the report.
At various border crossings between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) IOM staff recorded that more than 3,000 migrants were in the area passing the borders in groups of 50 every 20 minutes in recent days. Fewer than 50% of the migrants and refugees were nationals from Iraq and Syria, most of them families with little children. The rest were mainly nationals from Afghanistan and Pakistan along with some from Sub-Saharan Africa. Many were also speaking Greek, confirming the fact that along with recent arrivals, there were also those who have lived for years in Greece, wanting now to head to Northern and Western Europe.
More than 450,000 migrants have entered Germany so far this year, with a total of at least 800,000 expected for all of 2015.
*[Some 39 migrants, including 4 infants and 11 older children, drowned on their way to Greece in two separate incidents last weekend, reported AP. ]
The Coalition of “unwilling” cannot be serious about stopping ISIL terror.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD):
As of Sept. 8, the U.S. and coalition have conducted a total of 6,700 airstrikes (4,198 Iraq / 2,502 Syria).
U.S. has conducted 5,239 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria (2,858 Iraq / 2,381 Syria)
Coalition has conducted 1,461 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria (1,340 Iraq /121 Syria)
The following countries have participated in the airstrikes:
In Iraq: (1) Australia, (2) Canada, (3) Denmark, (4) France, (5) Jordan, (6) The Netherlands, and (7) UK
In Syria: (1) Bahrain, (2) Canada, (3) Jordan, (4) Saudi Arabia, (5) Turkey* and (6) UAE
* [It’s unclear whether the Turks have actually bombed any ISIL targets, or instead targeted positions of their old enemy, the Kurdish militias—ironically the only successful local force fighting against the ISIL.]
As of September 8, U.S. and partner nations aircraft have flown an estimated 53,278 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria, according to DoD.
Assuming that the Coalition have dropped an average of, say, 10 bombs in each airstrike, and each bomb has killed a modest average of, say, 4 terrorists, then the 6,700 airstrikes should have resulted in eliminating more than quarter of a million terrorists—268,000 to be exact!
Unfortunately, that is pure fiction and wishful thinking.
Cost of Operations
As of Aug. 15, 2015, the total cost of operations related to ISIL since kinetic operations started on Aug. 8, 2014, is $3.7 billion and the average daily cost is $9.9 million for 373 days of operations. A further breakdown of cost associated with the operations is here.
Syrians Refugees
The most troubling aspect of the war on Syria must be the obscene numbers of terrorized Syrian refugees, who are running for their lives, abandoning their homes and country.
Some 4,088,099 Syrians, including more than 2 million [typo corrected Sept.16, 2015 -editor] people aged 17 or younger, had fled their country as of September 6, 2015, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). More than 7 million others are internally displaced.
[Some 3,182,736 Iraqis, or 530,456 families, originally from three provinces of Anbar (42%), Ninewa (32%), and Salah al-Din (13%) have been internally displaced between January 2014 and August 27, 2015 due to ongoing atrocities committed by ISIL, said IOM.
1948 Palestinian Exodus
More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs, or about 80 percent of the Arab inhabitants of what became Israel, were forced to flee or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine war [dubbed the Nakba, in Arabic “al-Nakbah”, meaning “disaster”, “catastrophe”, or “cataclysm”.]
The exodus was triggered by a combination of various factors including:
Advances by Jewish military and the atrocities committed against Arab villages
Fears of repeat massacres by Zionist militias after the Deir Yassin massacre, in which Zionist paramilitary groups massacred at least 107 of the village’s 600 inhabitants
Expulsion orders by Israeli authorities
Unwillingness to live under Jewish control
Palestinian evacuation orders
Israeli government soon passed laws that prohibited the refugees from returning to their homes, or claiming their property. Thus the scene was set for Israeli expansion some 67 years ago.
To this date the Palestinians and their descendants remain as refugees.
The ever-growing state of Israel believes the only way it could realistically expand is by occupying additional, larger portions of Syria. And The only thing that stands on the way of its expansion is the Syrian population—a mere technicality [sic.]
Israel can no longer rely on the likes of Irgun and Lehi paramilitary groups to terrorize the Syrians and force them to flee their lands. Instead, the Jewish State has employed the services of ISIL, the seemingly unstoppable terrorist group with “license” to massacre, rape, and destroy—not unlike the atrocities committed by Irgun and Lehi.
Fire Earth 
