An under-reported fact about the Syrian war is that away from the major battles underway against ISIS in Al-Bab, Palmyra and Deir Ezzor, the fiercest fighting in Syria over the last two weeks has been in Jihadi controlled Idlib where Al-Qaeda has effectively declared war on Jihadi groups that are participating in the Russian-Turkish brokered ceasefire and in the Astana peace process.
No sooner than the howls of liberal excoriation died down over my proposal that Donald Trump ought to bring in a private security detail to be integrated into the existing secret service, than Matt Drudge posted a link to a piece from the Washington Examiner which confirmed many peoples’ deepest and darkest fears.
A woman called Kerry O’Grady who is in charge of the US Secret Service’s operations in Denver, Colorado, made a now deleted Facebook post in which she said the following:
The Turkish journalist Fehim Taştekin has provided Al Monitor with a highly interesting follow up to his previous report on the situation Aleppo, which cast doubt on some of the claims the Western media made during the fighting there.
Published with the permission of the author, first published by Unz.
I watched the God Emperor’s ascension to the Golden Throne at a bar night for American expats in Moscow. The mood there was largely pro-Trumpist, though obviously there was a self-selection mechanism involved. Everyone disliked HRC, though there were a fair number of Bernouts.
A report from the Russian Defence Ministry yesterday 23rd January 2017 caused a minor flap when it said that Russian aircraft had bombed ISIS position near Al-Bab on the basis of coordinates provided by the US military.
This caused some excitement, with some seeing this report as the first sign that under the new Trump administration US policy in Syria is at last changing, and that the US and Russia are finally working together to fight ISIS.
In one of his very first actions as President, Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order pulling the US out of the Trans Pacific Partnership (“TPP”).
The peace conference, which is supposed to agree a settlement of the Syrian conflict, began today Monday in the Kazakh capital of Astana.
The conference began with the usual frosty exchanges between the representatives of the Syrian government and of the Jihadi groups who have been invited to attend the conference, and who have agreed to do so. Each side – equally predictably – has also refused to meet and engage with the other in direct talks.
The single fact which make the latest offensive by ISIS eastern Syria so frightening and serious is that the way for it was paved by the US-led “anti-ISIS” coalition.
Before discussing this, let me repeat a point I made for The Duran previously, the truth of which as a Syrian in Syria who is an actual witness of this war I can personally vouch for
US President Trump looks set to get all his nominations for cabinet posts confirmed by the Senate after Senators McCain and Lindsey Graham said they would support Trump’s nomination of Rex Tillerson for the key post of US Secretary of State.
In a statement the two Republican Senators – who have a well-earned reputation as anti-Russian uber-hawks – dropped their objections to Tillerson on the grounds of his previous links whilst CEO of Exxon to Russia
Back on 15th January 2017 I wrote a piece for The Duran in which I contrasted the detailed on the spot reporting of Turkish journalist Fehim Taştekin in eastern Aleppo with the failure of western journalists to visit or report from Aleppo notwithstanding that following the end of the fighting there the city is finally safe for journalists to visit.
When I wrote that piece I was unaware that the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen was actually in Aleppo as I was writing it.
