By Ben Kew

As fires rage across Los Angeles, city officials are complaining there are not enough firefighters to manage the situation.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said that the department was incapable of managing such a massive natural disaster.

“There are not enough firefighters in all of Los Angeles County to address four separate fires of this magnitude,” he said.

“The LA County Fire Department was prepared for one or two major wildfires, but not the four. This is not a normal red flag alert.”

While their lack of manpower is completely understandable given the incredible ferocity of the fires, it is worth noting that many firefighters were fired for their refusal to take the COVID vaccine.

As pointed out by the popular End Wokeness account X, local news media even ran reports back in 2021 about how firefighters had their employment terminated after refusing to provide proof of vaccination or requesting an exemption.

[…]

Via https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/l-officials-complain-there-arent-enough-firefighters-after/

By Josh Stylman

In a previous article, we traced the development of structures of oversight from Edison’s physical monopolies through Tavistock’s psychological operations, witnessing how corporate and banking interests and intelligence agencies converged to shape public consciousness. Now we’ll see how these methods reached new sophistication through popular culture, beginning with the British Invasion of the 1960s, which demonstrated how thoroughly orchestrated music movements could reshape society.

The Beatles and Rolling Stones weren’t just bands—as researcher Mike Williams has extensively documented in his analysis of the British Invasion (The Deep State Machine Behind the Beatles), their emergence marked the beginning of a systematic and profound cultural transformation. Williams notes that even the term ‘British Invasion’ itself was telling—a military metaphor for what was ostensibly a cultural phenomenon, perhaps Tavistock telegraphing its operation in plain sight.

What seemed like playful marketing language actually described a carefully orchestrated infiltration of American youth culture. Through hundreds of hours of meticulously documented research, Williams builds an overwhelming case that the Beatles served as the spearhead of a broader agenda that used albums like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request to deliberately steer youth culture away from traditional values and family structures. What seems tame by today’s standards represented a calculated assault on social norms, initiating a cultural transformation that would accelerate over the following decades.

Williams’ research goes further, presenting compelling evidence that the Beatles were essentially the first modern ‘boy band’—their image carefully crafted, their music largely written and performed by others. This revelation transforms our understanding of the British Invasion: what appeared to be an organic cultural phenomenon was in fact a meticulously orchestrated operation, with professional musicians and songwriters behind the scenes while the Beatles served as appealing frontmen for the massive social engineering project.

As a lifelong music fan and Beatles devotee, confronting this evidence initially felt like sacrilege. Yet the pattern becomes undeniable once you allow yourself to see it. While debate continues over specific details like the Frankfurt School’s Theodor Adorno’s alleged involvement in crafting Beatles songs—a claim that has both passionate proponents and critics—what’s clear is that the operation bore all the hallmarks of Tavistock’s social engineering methodology.

The deliberate crafting of a “good boys/bad boys” (Beatles/Rolling Stones) dialectic offered controlled choices and allowed “both sides” to advance the exact same desired cultural shifts. Andrew Loog Oldham masterfully crafted the Stones’ ‘bad boy’ image using public relations techniques reminiscent of Edward Bernays’ methods (the ‘father of public relations’ who pioneered mass psychological manipulation)—creating desire through psychological insight and manufacturing cultural rebellion as a marketable commodity.

As Oldham himself acknowledged in his autobiography, he wasn’t just selling music but rather ‘rebellion, anarchy, and sex appeal wrapped up in a neat package’—deliberately creating a myth for people to buy into. His sophisticated understanding of cultural branding and mass psychology reflected the broader methods of influence that were reshaping media and public opinion during the era.

Behind Mick Jagger’s rebellious persona lay an education at the London School of Economics, suggesting an insider with a deeper understanding of power systems at play. This assiduous development of image extended to the performers’ inner circle—notably Jagger’s girlfriend Marianne Faithfull, herself a successful singer and socialite, whose father was an MI6 officer who interrogated Heinrich Himmler and whose maternal grandfather had Habsburg Dynasty roots. The Stones’ finances were managed by Prince Rupert Loewenstein, a Bavarian aristocrat and private banker whose noble lineage and financial circles intersected with the Rothschild dynasty—another example of establishment figures behind seemingly anti-establishment movements.

Even the record label itself fit the pattern: EMI (Electric and Musical Industries), which signed both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, began as a military electronics company. During World War II, EMI’s research and development contributed significantly to Britain’s radar program and other military technologies. This fusion of military-industrial interests with cultural production was no coincidence—EMI’s technical expertise in electronics and communications would prove valuable in both warfare and the mass distribution of cultural content.

These carefully managed British experiments in cultural control would soon find their perfect laboratory in America, where an unlikely convergence would reshape youth culture and the family unit forever. Britain had pioneered these methods of cultural orchestration through music, embedding intelligence ties into the British Invasion, but America would refine and scale these techniques to unprecedented levels.

The Laurel Canyon Laboratory

In the hills above Hollywood between 1965-1975, as journalist Dave McGowan first documented, an extraordinary phenomenon: the emergence of a new music scene centered in Laurel Canyon, where an improbable concentration of military and intelligence family connections converged to reshape American youth culture. This convergence was no accident—as anti-war sentiment grew strongest in academic circles, this military-intelligence nexus helped redirect potential resistance into a drug-saturated counterculture focused on ‘dropping out’ rather than organized opposition to the war.

The military/intelligence connections within Laurel Canyon were striking.

• Jim Morrison’s father commanded the fleet during the Gulf of Tonkin incident that launched the Vietnam War.
• Frank Zappa’s father was a chemical warfare specialist at Edgewood Arsenal, a key human experimentation research site.
• David Crosby, scion of the Van Cortlandts and Van Rensselaers—American royalty—descended from a lineage of political power that included senators, Supreme Court justices, and Revolutionary generals.
• James Taylor, a descendant of Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers, grew up in a family shaped by academia and military service, including his father’s role in Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica.
• Sharon Tate, daughter of Army intelligence officer Lt. Col. Paul Tate, moved through these circles before her death.
• Dennis Hopper, whose father was OSS, directed Easy Rider and starred in it with Peter Fonda, packaging counterculture rebellion for mainstream consumption.

The transformation was systematic—from the post-war optimism and unity embodied by JFK’s New Frontier to the calculated fragmentation that followed his assassination. This mass shared public trauma, perfectly suited to Tavistock’s methods of social engineering through psychological shock, marked the end of genuine optimism.

The Boomers, raised with unprecedented prosperity and inspired by Kennedy’s vision of a New Frontier, saw their potential for authentic social and political transformation redirected into carefully crafted cultural movements that would shape subsequent generations. These pervasive connections between military-intelligence figures and countercultural leaders—from Morrison’s admiral father to Zappa’s chemical warfare specialist parent to Crosby’s political dynasty—reveal a clear pattern: the systematic co-opting of youth culture by establishment powers.

The timing of Laurel Canyon’s emergence as a counterculture hub coincided with the CIA’s MK-Ultra’s mind control program’s peak years of operation. This was no coincidence. The same organizations experimenting with consciousness control through chemical methods, such as LSD, were simultaneously embedding themselves in cultural programming efforts. The convergence of these strategies in Laurel Canyon laid the groundwork for what would soon become the full-scale fusion of music and psychedelics—a calculated effort to thwart organically arising political resistance by channeling it into a movement centered on personal transcendence rather than effective collective action.

Programming the Revolution

Building on the psychological and cultural groundwork established in Laurel Canyon, the fusion of music and psychedelics marked the apex of consciousness manipulation. This phase of mass cultural programming strategically redirected genuine political resistance into artificially managed cultural channels, steering dissent away from organized movements and into fragmented, drug-fueled withdrawal.

Even the Grateful Dead, the quintessential embodiment of California counterculture, which cultivated a devoted following that defined a generation’s search for community and meaning, were intricately tied to mechanisms of societal control. Their manager Alan Trist, was not only the son of Tavistock founder Eric Trist but was also present at the pivotal car accident that killed Jerry Garcia’s childhood friend, Paul Speegle—a tragedy that set Garcia on the path to forming the band.

Garcia’s military connection adds another layer of intrigue: after stealing his mother’s car in 1960, he was offered the choice between prison or military service. Despite repeatedly going AWOL from Fort Ord and the Presidio of San Francisco, Garcia received only a general discharge—an unusually lenient outcome that raises questions about potential official connections. Meanwhile, the band’s lyricist, Robert Hunter, participated in government-funded LSD experiments tied to the broader psychedelic research of the era. Serving as the house band for the CIA-connected Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead played a key role in steering anti-war sentiment toward psychedelic retreat, aligning the counterculture with state-sponsored agendas in ways that warrant deeper scrutiny.

This alignment of counterculture and establishment interests proved wildly effective. As anti-war sentiment grew strongest in academic circles—where genuine resistance could threaten structural power—the emergence of the hippie movement effectively redirected opposition into a youth counterculture saturated with drugs and focused on escapism rather than organized resistance. As the war machine escalated operations in Vietnam, young Americans were guided toward cultural dissolution—a perfect formula for neutralizing meaningful peace movements. The same military-intelligence complex that drove the war was simultaneously molding the culture that would prevent effective resistance to it.

Timothy Leary’s role in this transformation was crucial. Before becoming the psychedelic movement’s most influential voice, he had been a West Point cadet and would later serve as an FBI informant. His advocacy for psychedelics emerged alongside the CIA’s own exploration of substances like LSD during the MK-Ultra era. John Lennon later reflected on this confluence with biting irony: ‘We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD. That’s what people forget…They invented LSD to control people and what they did was give us freedom.’ This seeming backfire of the program masked a deeper success—dismantling potential resistance through the promotion of chemical disengagement.

By popularizing the mantra “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” Leary advanced this agenda. This redirection not only fragmented youth opposition, but weakened their ties to traditional support systems such as families and communities—exactly the kind of social atomization that would make future control easier.

The overlap between government-funded LSD research and the emerging music scene was far from coincidental. While MK-Ultra explored chemical means of consciousness control, the music industry was simultaneously perfecting cultural methods—with bands like the Grateful Dead bridging both worlds through their ties to government-backed LSD experiments and the rapidly growing counterculture.

Redirecting Resistance

Patterns of government leadership connections to musical movements weren’t limited to the psychedelic era. As popular music evolves through new genres and decades, the same underlying relationships continue between establishment power and cultural influence.

In the hardcore punk scene, figures like Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi) whose father was in the White House Press Corps and present at JFK’s assassination, would ironically become one of the most fiercely independent figures in music, pioneering the DIY ethic through his label Dischord Records. His autonomous approach seemed to resist the system, yet his establishment connections highlight a broader pattern. Even in alternative rock, Dave Grohl’s father served as special assistant to Senator Robert Taft Jr. during the Reagan administration. Madonna, who became the defining pop star of the 1980s, was the daughter of Tony Ciccone, an engineer who worked on military projects for Chrysler Defense and General Dynamics Land Systems.

Having parents involved in government, defense, or intelligence work doesn’t imply wrongdoing by these artists; however, these examples represent just a fraction of the documented connections between counterculture figures and power structures. The pattern extends across decades and genres, with hundreds of similar cases suggesting not coincidence but systematic design—from jazz musicians backed by banking families to punk rockers with government connections to mainstream pop stars from defense industry families. These pervasive ties raise fundamental questions about the relationship between ruling class power and cultural influence.

[…]

Via https://brownstone.org/articles/part-two-capturing-the-counterculture/

S.D. Wells

Imagine if an automobile manufacturer recommended their vehicles for everyone to buy and drive but wouldn’t drive it themselves because they don’t want to risk the vehicle malfunctioning and injuring or killing them. This is basically what the CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, just said about the mRNA Covid “vaccines” that his company, working in tandem with Pfizer, created for the Wuhan Virus plandemic.

Ugur Sahin refuses to take the jab because he says he must ensure he stays “functional,” in other words, he knows that the clot shot renders humans functionless, incapacitated, and seriously injured where they cannot do their job, take care of themselves, or function for their children anymore.

Cancer research specialist and immunology scientist refuses to take the vaccine his own company designed and manufactured – does he fear getting turbo cancer from it?

Ugur Sahin is a German oncologist and immunologist who co-founded BioNTech, which developed one of the major clot shots for Covid-19. As a result of his company’s increase in value after merging with Pfizer and creating the deadliest vaccine known to mankind, he became one of Germany’s 100 wealthiest people.

Scientists and coroners around the globe have been identifying strange rubbery vascular clots up to a foot long inside of the humans who have received the Covid-19 jabs, bringing into question whether the mRNA “technology” uses millions of nanoparticles to form these clots and cause horrible health consequences, including myocarditis, pericarditis, vascular clots, strokes, heart attacks, miscarriages, and wait for it… turbo cancer.

Turbo cancer means people who have cancer or were previously diagnosed with cancer that went into remission, after they get the Covid jab(s), suddenly get huge cancer tumors and their cancer catapults into a deadly stage almost overnight.

Why would a cancer research specialist whose company created the Covid vaccines say that he will not take a chance and get inoculated with mRNA because he has to remain functional to run his company?

If Ugur Sahin is afriad to take the vaccine his own company made and distributed to hundreds of millions of people, then what does he know that he’s not telling everyone? What does he mean when he says he has to remain functional, so he can’t take the shot? Does that mean he fears he will have a heart attack or stroke? That’s sure what it sounds like, or why else would he say that? Is he afraid he’ll get a turbo-cancer brain tumor and be incapacitated where he needs chemotherapy and round-the-clock nurses to help him survive the aftermath of the mRNA spike proteins clogging his brain veins?

[…]

BOMBSHELL: Co-founder and CEO of BioNTech refuses to take the mRNA Covid vaccine because he says, “we need to ensure functionality of our whole company”

Lost Kingdoms of Africa – The Berber Kingdom of Morocco

BBC (2013)

Film Review

The Berber kingdom acquired great wealth and created distinctive architecture that persists to the present day. Nearly half Morocco’s inhabitants still speak Berber, along with Arabic and French, and many maintain traditional Berber customs along with their practice of Islam.

The founder of the Berber empire was an 11th century nomad, Abdullah Ibn Yassin, who led a rebellion against North Africa’s Arab-run Umayyad Caliphate (which he viewed as heretical as regards Koranic teachings). Their first conquest was Sijilmasa, a major oasis and trading center whose 50,000 residents traded with Mali, Senegal, the Middle East and India. From there, Ibn Yassin and his army crossed the Sahara to seize the trading town of Awdaghust and dominate the region’s gold trade. Part of their success stemmed from their ability to find water under the desert and construct miles of tunnels to carry it.

Crossing the Atlas mountains (with the highest pass 13,500 feet) to reach the heretical Berbers on the Mediterranean coast was much more difficult. With 400 horsemen, 800 cameleers and 2,000 foot soldiers, Ibn Yassin first attacked Aghmat, which became his new headquarters. Among other public buildings he constructed were stone and mortar bath houses with hot and cold running water that used the recycled water for irrigation. In 1070, he moved his headquarters to Marrakesh. With mountains and foothills on three sides, Aghmat was too hard to defend.

Jusef Ibn Tashfin, who succeeded Ibn Yassin, transformed the Berber conquests into an empire. Over the next 26 years, he conquered Fez, Tangier and Algiers and most of Andalus (the Iberian peninsula).*

Ibn Tashfin’s 23 year old son Ali Tashfin, a renowned patron of Andalusian architecture)  ucceeded him in 1143. He also defended against the 20-year siege of Marakesh, by the Amohads, a rival Berber group concerned about the ruling Berbers’ failure to correctly align their mosques with Mecca.

After assuming leadership of the Berber jihad, the Amohads extended their territory in into Libya and Seville (Spain), which became a second Berber capital. The Amohads minted gold and square silver dinars that have been recovered in London, Germany, Holland and China. They’re also known for stunning gardens and artificial lakes. The University of Fez (Morocco) attracted scholars from across the Mediterranean to study science, history, religion and medicine. The important Jewish philosopher Moses Memonides taught and studied there. Commentary on Aristotle by Andalusian scholar Ibn Rashid first introduced classical Greek philosophy and literature to medieval Europe.

Artisans in the Medina market (in modern Tunisia) still practice metallurgy and tanning and handcraft pottery and soap exactly the way their Berber ancestors did.

Following the death of the Berber military leader Aku bin Absud in 1199, succession squabbles allowed rivals to make claims on Amohad territory. Loss of their tax base and control over the Mediterranean economy eventually caused the collapse of Amohad rule in 1269.

*Initially a united empire following its conquest by Muslim warriors in the 8th century, Al- Andalus had splintered into smaller kingdoms under assault by Christian rebels.

Zero Hedge

Signs that we were once a truly great nation are all around us.  Previous generations of Americans handed us the keys to the most magnificent domestic infrastructure that the world had ever seen, but now it is literally falling apart all around us.  Thousands of bridges are structurally deficient and there have already been some very high profile collapses.  Hundreds of thousands of miles of highways and roads in the United States are in very poor shape.  Aging sewer systems are leaking raw sewage all over the place, and children are being slowly poisoned by lead pipes that desperately need to be replaced.  The power grid is hopelessly overloaded and is extremely vulnerable.  Meanwhile, our ports, our dams, our subway systems, our bus terminals and our airports are crumbling right in front of our eyes.  The truth is that our nation’s infrastructure says a lot about who we are.  

So what does America’s crumbling infrastructure say about us?  Sadly, it says that we are a rusting, crumbling, decaying leftover from a better, more prosperous time.

When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration told us that “investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s”…

Public investment in U.S. infrastructure as a share of GDP has fallen by more than 40 percent since the 1960s. The World Economic Forum now ranks the United States 13th when it comes to the overall quality of infrastructure.

So Congress passed a bill that gave the Biden administration more than $100,000,000,000 to spend on fixing our infrastructure.

Honestly, I have no idea what they did with all that money.

In 2021, the official White House website was reporting that 45,000 bridges and 20 percent of our roads were in poor condition…

More than 45,000 U.S. bridges and 1 in 5 miles of roads are in poor condition, per the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2007, the I-35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 and injuring 121.

Well, fast forward a few years later and the Department of Transportation is still telling us that “over 40,000 bridges” are in poor condition…

The Department of Transportation considers 6.8% of the over 600,000 bridges it tracks and rates to be in “poor” condition. That doesn’t sound too bad on a percentage basis, but it’s over 40,000 bridges in total.

And it appears that the condition of our roads has actually gotten worse in many states.

For example, Consumer Reports says that almost half of all urban roads in the state of California are not currently in acceptable condition…

Despite an enormous yearly disbursement for highways that tops $21 billion, the Golden State manages to keep just a little more than half their urban roads in acceptable condition. However, this is an outsized job since, in addition to 840 miles of coastline, California boasts more miles of urban roads than any other state and has the second-highest mileage of rural roads in the country.

Data from the National Highway Administration shows California’s roads are the most traveled in the U.S., so it makes sense that the state also has the second-highest number of motor vehicle-related fatalities in the country.

Back in 2021, the Biden administration also made a big deal out of the fact that millions of Americans were getting their tap water through lead pipes…

Millions still get water from lead pipes, despite the fact that exposure to lead has irreversible health effects; in 2015, a state of emergency was declared in Flint, Michigan as citizens learned that their water supply contained toxic levels of lead.

So why didn’t the Biden administration fix this problem?

An article that was published late last year revealed that the EPA is estimating that “more than 9 million service lines” are still made out of lead…

The EPA estimates that more than 9 million service lines are made of lead, a neurotoxin that can cause nervous system damage, learning disabilities and other health problems, especially in children. If lead pipes corrode, as in the infamous case of Flint, Michigan, they can poison drinking water.

While no amount of lead exposure is safe, the federal rule now requires utilities to notify the public and improve corrosion treatment if lead in their water exceeds 10 parts per billion. Some homes in Syracuse, New York, recently tested at 70 parts per billion.

Our politicians are constantly telling us that they just don’t have enough money to get everything done.

Personally, I would really love to see exactly what the Biden administration spent more than 100 billion dollars of infrastructure money on.

Have you traveled through any of our airports lately?

Compared to other industrialized nations, they are a complete and utter joke.

Why can’t we have beautiful airports, modern subway systems, functional roads and bridges, and safe water coming out of our taps?

More tax revenue is collected in America than anywhere else in the world, and so we certainly deserve the best infrastructure.

When I bring up the topic of taxes, most people immediately think of the federal income tax.  But the truth is that there are literally dozens of different taxes that they use to extract wealth out of us…

• Building Permit Tax
• Capital Gains Tax
• CDL License Tax
• Cigarette Tax
• Corporate Income Tax
• Court Fines (indirect taxes)
• Dog License Tax
• Federal Income Tax
• Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
• Fishing License Tax
• Food License Tax
• Fuel Permit Tax
• Gasoline Tax
• Gift Tax
• Hunting License Tax
• Inheritance Tax
• IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
• Liquor Tax
• Local Income Tax
• Luxury Taxes
• Marriage License Tax
• Medicare Tax
• Payroll Taxes
• Property Tax
• Real Estate Tax
• Recreational Vehicle Tax
• Road Toll Booth Taxes
• Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
• Sales Taxes
• School Tax
• Septic Permit Tax
• Service Charge Taxes
• Social Security Tax
• State Income Tax
• State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
• Telephone federal excise tax
• Telephone federal universal service fee tax
• Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
• Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
• Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
• Telephone state and local tax
• Telephone usage charge tax
• Toll Bridge Taxes
• Toll Tunnel Taxes
• Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
• Trailer Registration Tax
• Utility Taxes
• Vehicle License Registration Tax
• Vehicle Sales Tax
• Watercraft Registration Tax
• Well Permit Tax
• Workers Compensation Tax

When you take all forms of taxation into account, some Americans actually end up handing over more than 50 percent of their incomes each year.

So our politicians have no excuse for not fixing our infrastructure.

But even though they extract money from us in dozens of different ways, our infrastructure crisis just seems to keep getting worse.

In some areas of the country, roads that were once paved have actually been transformed into gravel roads because they are cheaper to maintain.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/truth-about-americas-crumbling-infrastructure

Mike Whitney

One Plan To Guide Them All: “…..The dissolution of Syria and Iraq... into ethnically or religiously unique areas… is Israel’s primary target… while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short-term target. Syria will fall apart in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure… Oded Yinon, A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties, voltairenet

Israeli military forces have moved to within 15 miles of the Syrian Capital of Damascus. The IDF has seized large tracts of land in southern Syria it intends to occupy and where it will eventually build checkpoints, military outposts and settlements. The “lightening” invasion has been accompanied by a massive bombing campaign that has obliterated numerous military bases, weapons depots and research labs eliminating any hope that Syria will regain the ability to defend itself or to reestablish its sovereign independence. For all practical purposes, Syria no longer exists; the persistent attacks of foreign enemies have left the country vanquished and splintered. The carve-up of the critically located nation-state has already begun.

At the same time the IDF is closing in on Damascus, US Forces along the Turkish border have started building a military base in the city of Kobani.The move is intended to provoke Turkey into a confrontation that will pit Washington’s Kurdish proxy militia against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA). The situation is fraught with danger as it increases the likelihood that two NATO members will soon clash in northeastern Syria.

Here’s more from an article at the Daily Sabah:

The United States is reportedly building a military base to help its ally the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, in northern Syria where the terrorists have been cornered by the Türkiye-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime.

Local journalists said 13 trucks with U.S. flags and carrying concrete construction blocks arrived in the PKK/YPG’s stronghold Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani, early on Thursday morning. The U.S. military has emptied a base in neighboring Iraq and the concrete blocks and other materials are being shipped to Ain al-Arab for a Syrian base, according to local sources. Earlier this week, the U.S. military transferred dozens of Bradley armored vehicles to the region and supplied air defense systems and other armored vehicles to the YPG….

The PKK is proscribed as a terrorist group by the European Union, the U.S. and Türkiye. It is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in Türkiye, including women and children. It maintains strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled “Kurdish state.”

The U.S. has dispatched troops along with military equipment and weapons to Syria’s northeast during the Syrian civil war to help the PKK/YPG under the pretext of the fight against Daesh. Ankara says the YPG/PKK is on par with Daesh and should have no presence in the new Syria. US said to set up military base in Syria as SNA corners PKK/YPG, Daily Sabah

The excerpt above helps to show just how tense the situation in Syria is at the present time. While Washington applauded Turkey’s support for the jihadists who just toppled Assad and seized power in Damascus, the Biden administration is deliberately provoking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a critical matter of national security. (Turkish leaders regard US support for the Kurds (YPG) as a threat to their security.) This duplicitous behavior is not uncommon for the US which operates on the theory that allies are only allies for as long as they serve Washington’s overall interests.

The US will continue to support the Kurds (aka—The Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF) in order to preserve access to Syrian oil in the East, and to further reinforce its support for Israeli policy in the region. Israel’s affection for the Kurds is purely pragmatic as this excerpt from an article at CNN explains:

…there is one regional power that has thrown its weight behind the Kurds’ drive for independence: Israel….Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement ahead of the referendum saying Israel “supports the legitimate efforts of the Kurdish people to attain a state of its own.”… “Israel would welcome another state in the region that shares its concerns about the rising power of Iran, including the threat of Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq,” says Frantzman. “Reports have also indicated that oil from Kurdistan is purchased by Israel.”CNN

So, aside from getting cheap oil from Kurdish-controlled area in east Syria, Israel also sees the Kurds as a natural ally in their fight against Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria, all of whom oppose an independent Kurdish state. Here’s more background from an article at Al-Monitor:

The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria has signed an agreement with an American oil company... One of the sources said the agreement to market oil in territory controlled by the US-backed entity and to develop and modernize existing fields was inked last week “with the knowledge and encouragement of the White House.”…..

Oil is the autonomous administration’s principal source of income.... The Kurdish-led entity controls most of Syria’s oil wealth, which is concentrated in and around the Rmelain fields close to the Turkish and Iraqi borders and in the Al-Omar fields further south.

Ankara is every bit as sensitive about the oil as it’s seen as the vehicle for cementing the Syrian Kurds’ self-rule project. Turkey has since 2016 been launching military operations against the SDF to disrupt its perceived attempts to establish a contiguous zone of control from the Iraqi border all the way to Afrin to the west of the Euphrates river and beyond. Turkey claims the SDF and its affiliates are “terrorists” because of their links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the rebel group that has been fighting for Kurdish self rule inside Turkey since 1984 and is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

Sources told Al-Monitor the agreement to market oil in territory controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces was signed “with the knowledge and encouragement of the White House.” Al-Monitor: US oil company signs deal with Syrian Kurd, justiceforkurds.org

Some readers may recall that President Donald Trump boasted many times how he “took the oil” in Syria. Here’s what he said:

I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They’re protecting the oil. I took over the oil… We have the oil. Right now, the U.S. has the oil.

Bottom line: Washington’s support for the Kurds (aka- the SDF) has allowed a US proxy to control both the oil-rich parts of Syria as well as Syria’s breadbasket where most of its wheat is harvested. This loss of revenue—along with onerous US economic sanctions—pushed the country into bankruptcy which greatly accelerated the collapse of the state and the removal of Assad. This was a big “win” for the US, Turkey, Qatar and other western allies, but mostly for Israel upon whose regional aspirations the overall strategy is based. Keep in mind, that everything that has taken place aligns closely with a strategic blueprint produced by a Zionist intellectual (Oded Yinon) more than four decades ago who concocted “an accurate and detailed plan….for the Middle East which is based on the division of the whole area into small states, and the dissolution of all the existing Arab states.” According to political analyst Khalil Nakhleh:

The plan operates on two essential premises. To survive, Israel must

1) become an imperial regional power and

2) must affect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.

Small here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state…. Consequently, the Zionist hope is that sectarian-based states become Israel’s satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation…What they want and what they are planning for is not an Arab world, but a world of Arab fragments that is ready to succumb to Israeli hegemony…

Every Arab state…. is a real target sooner or later …

There is no indication that Arab strategists have internalized the Zionist plan in its full ramifications. Instead, they react with incredulity and shock whenever a new stage of it unfolds…. The sad fact is that as long as the Zionist strategy for the Middle East is not taken seriously Arab reaction to any future siege of other Arab capitals will be the same. Khalil Nakhleh, The Zionist Plan for the Middle East, powerbase.info

A rehash of these same ideas emerged more than a decade later under the title of “A Clean Break: A Strategy for Securing the Realm,” authored by neocon Richard Perle who outlined Israel’s strategic vision for remaking the Middle East. Here’s a clip:

Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq – an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right – as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions.”

“Most important, it is understandable that Israel has an interest supporting diplomatically, militarily and operationally Turkey’s and Jordan’s actions against Syria, such as securing tribal alliances with Arab tribes that cross into Syrian territory and are hostile to the Syrian ruling elite.” US Caught Faking It in Syria – fulfilling the Yinon and Clean Break Plans, cnionline.org

The similarities between the two documents are obvious, as is the fact that this is the operational strategy that is shaping events in the Middle East. The role of vital resources, pipeline corridors and even regional security are all secondary to Israel’s ambitious plan for regional hegemony which is the primary impetus for the escalating conflagration. Having eliminated six of seven rivals in the last two decades, we should expect that a war with Iran is now unavoidable. Iran remains the last obstacle to the realization of the Zionist dream which is to become a world power via regional domination.

It’s worth noting, that even though Israel is within striking distance of Damascus, it does not intend to invade or occupy the city. As one astute analyst on Twitter put it:

Israel had a standing policy never to attempt capturing an Arab capital city. The repercussions of such an act far exceed the propaganda value. That’s why Israel never attempted to get to Damascus, or Cairo, during the 1973 war….

The only time Israel strayed from this policy was in 1982 when the IDF entered the suburbs of Beirut. That was a dumb move and ended badly for the war goals.

IMHO, the Israeli leadership will probably remain on the outskirts of the city and avoid the urban warfare that would ensue if they attempted to occupy Damascus itself. That way the IDF can continue its relentless airstrikes on targets within Damascus without engaging in endless door-to-door fighting that would send casualties soaring. In any event, there is currently no sign that the IDF plans to march on Damascus.

On Friday, Syria’s new leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, (aka—Ahmad al-Sharaa) “demanded that the United States tell Israel to pull its forces out of the border buffer zone and the Syrian side of Mount Hermon.”

According to an article in Israel Today:

Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of Syria’s Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group and the country’s de facto leader, has asked the United States to pressure Israel to withdraw from the Golan buffer zone and the peak of Mount Hermon….

Sources in Israel said that they did not receive any demand from Washington with regard to Syria, adding that the Jewish state will not compromise on its security, according to the report…

Israel’s “excuses have run out, and they have crossed the lines of engagement” for striking the Assad regime’s military infrastructure, as well as for deploying troops to several demilitarized zones in the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, The New York Times quoted al-Sharaa as saying. Israel Today

[…]

Via https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/the-syria-carve-up-creates-a-de-facto-israel-turkey-border-ensuring-a-broader-me-war/

The following is on the hell of the “new Syria” ruled by al-Qaeda/ISIS terrorist Joolani, where his co-terrorist thugs run around hunting down minorities, torturing & killing them.

There are countless such videos, and worse, being shared on Telegram & social media, from Syrians who film these terrorists’ attacking civilians (because media in Syria is now under control of HTS/al-Qaeda, you won’t see reports there…nor from the influencers chirping about how great & free Syria is now, and hey, ISIS are very helpful people…)

Following are just some examples of the lawlessness and pure terrorism that has been unleashed on Syria, on Syrian civilians. This is what the idiots who cheered the toppling of the former Syrian government have endorsed.

Alawites in Syria are facing genocide at the hands of jihadists targeting their sect. The lie about holding so-called war criminals accountable is clear to anyone who understands Arabic and isn’t a jihadist—videos speak for themselves. In this video, they openly say, “You are Alawite,” as they torture their victims. The sole reason for this brutality is their faith. Do not stay silent. There is a sectarian massacre happening in Syria! [source]

January 4, 2025, 6:00 PM

Location: Western Talkalakh countryside, Kherbet Al-Ashari Incident: At 6:00 PM today, unarmed Alawites were brutally attacked, beaten, insulted, and cursed by HTS , with the participation of some local residents affiliated with them.” [source]

“In the Homs countryside, young Alawites are being arrested and murdered without any valid reason.” [source]

“Al-Tall – Damascus Countryside

The Commission’s members continue their crimes. Yesterday, an operation took place to liquidate Samer Daas and another person on charges of belonging to the former regime. They were shot in the car and their bodies were burned near one of the ovens, without being subjected to the judiciary or the courts.

In the second video, the car is documented after it was burned and the bodies were removed from it.” [source]

**By the way notice (in 2nd video) the White Helmets cleaning up after terrorist murder a civilian, just like they did throughout their existence, hand in hand with the terrorists.

“HTS accounts shared videos of civilians being tortured in Homs countryside, accusing them of collaborating with the former regime or being Alawite or Christian, framing it as “revenge.”” [source]

“Horrific Crime in Latakia: HTS killed a man and dragged him publicly, with the crowd cheering. This brutal act highlights the absence of justice and accountability in Syria.” [source]

“The blessings of revolution and freedom in Syria…” [source]

“Homs – Dallal Nashiwati St., Wadi al-Dahab, January 2, 2025

Hundreds of unarmed civilians were beaten, humiliated, arrested, and tortured by HTS due to sectarian motives. Their fate remains unknown.” [source]

“Jubb al-Jarrah, Homs: Mass arrest of Alawite villagers by what appears to be HTS terrorists.” [source]

[…]

Execution! This is what the internationally wanted Al-Julani gangs do.” [source]

*Btw, @ 0:49, one man replies he is from Harem, the terrorist curses him and says everyone from Harem are pigs! He curses another man from Harem and repeats his cursing against people from Harem.

In Syria, in 2014, I met a man from Harem, right near the Turkish border, who spoke of (in 2013) being kidnapped by terrorists for 3 months and 5 days…and of them kidnapping others, murdering them, and sending their decapitated heads back to the families.

“They had tanks and guns, like an army, just like an army. They killed around 110 people, and kidnapped around 250… children, civilians, soldiers. Until now, we don’t know what’s happened to them.” This list is not complete, sadly, it is a glimpse into what hell Syrians are enduring now, to the criminal silence of global media.

For continued updates, please follow Syr Doc on their Telegram

Meanwhile, in the ancient town of Maaloula, the only town in Syria where inhabitants still speak the ancient Christian language of Aramaic, has been under siege for two weeks, reducing its population from 1,000 to just 200. [source]

Maaloula was occupied by terrorists from September 2013 to May 2014. I visited exactly two months after it was liberated by Hezbollah, the Syrian army, local defenders and allies. The destruction the West’s terrorists meted out was horrific, devastating.

See one of my prior posts for my writings on Maaloula, based on my 2014 and 2016 visits there. There are many photos and testimonies to highlight the destruction and terrorism of this cherished historic town.

In 2018, I went back there during the Festival of the Cross, during which time I attended a moving mass and saw the enthusiastic celebrations afterwards.

From my overview of this:

I asked Abdo Haddad to summarize the importance of the Festival of the Cross. He said (video):

“Tonight we are celebrating the finding of the cross that happened 1700 years ago. This celebration is represented by putting fire on top of the mountains, from Jerusalem to Constantinople, to tell the people in Constantinople that the cross was found.

Maaloula is the only place in the world that is still celebrating this custom.

The only time that this custom stopped is when the so-called rebels and other “revolution” people in Syria invaded Maaloula, and instead of putting fire on top of the mountain, they put our houses on fire. But since we are sons and daughters of life, we kept on celebrating it since Maaloula was liberated by the Syrian army in 2014.

So we celebrate life now, and we celebrate the cross.

We were born here 3,000 years ago and we’ll keep existing until the end of time.”

[…]

Via https://substack.com/@evakarenebartlett/p-154382925