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WATCH: White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, made the bizarre claim while comparing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler stating that, Assad is even worse because Hitler, “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

This triggered a firestorm of reporters pointing out the Nazi’s use of chemical weapons in WWII.

First, let’s break down the definition of a chemical weapon:

1. “Chemical Weapons” means the following, together or separately:

(a) Toxic chemicals and their precursors, except where intended for purposes not prohibited under this Convention, as long as the types and quantities are consistent with such purposes;

(b) Munitions and devices, specifically designed to cause death or other harm through the toxic properties of those toxic chemicals specified in subparagraph (a), which would be released as a result of the employment of such munitions and devices;

(c) Any equipment specifically designed for use directly in connection with the employment of munitions and devices specified in subparagraph (b).

The Nazi’s hydrogen cyanide meets the first condition and the gas chambers would qualify as a “device” in the second.

In early 1942,  Zyklon B emerged as the preferred killing tool of Nazi Germany for use in extermination camps during the Holocaust. Hydrogen cyanide gas was pumped into gas chambers killing scores of victims at once. Including Jews, Germans, Polish, and many other ethnic groups of humans that were singled out by Nazi leaders.

A stockpile of Zyklon-B poison gas pellets found at Majdanek death camp in 1944.

Close-up of the containers and a gas mask found at Majdanek.

In the above photographs the containers hold Zyklon B pellets that vaporize when exposed to air. During the killing process, prisoners at Auschwitz and other killing centers were forced into the air-tight chambers. The Zyklon pellets were then dumped into the chambers via special air shafts or openings in the ceiling.

Through a little research it is easy to find the use of chemical weapons most certainly occurred at the behest of Adolf Hitler. Against not only the Jewish people and many other groups, but his own. German-Jews were full citizens until they had their rights stripped away by Hitler’s totalitarian regime and they too ended up in concentration camps. Germans, or any others that were against Hitler’s regime also became victims of chemical warfare.

When asked about potential reasons why Russia would pull back its support of Syria —it’s decades long ally, Spicer apparently got some facts wrong regarding WWII stating:

“We didn’t use chemical weapons in World War II,” he said. “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons. If you’re Russia, you have to ask yourself if this is a country and regime that you want to align yourself with.”

Moments later a reporter asked Spicer to clarify his remarks he stated:

“When you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.” Further adding, “he brought them into the Holocaust centers,” apparently referring to the gas chambers.

“In the way that Assad used them where he went into towns and dropped him down on innocents in the middle of town was not the same. I appreciate the clarification — that was not the intent,” Spicer said, implying that Hitler did not use chemical weapons.”

Spicer appears to be trying to limit his definition of chemical weapons to those dropped from planes or fired through cannons, as Assad has been alleged to have done, furthering that claim as well.

After the conference, Spicer back pedalled telling an NBC Reporter:

“In no way was I trying to lessen the horrendous nature of the Holocaust, however, I was trying to draw a contrast of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on innocent people.”

It appears Spicer has sparked some online displeasure and even outrage with his bold claims.

I hope @PressSec takes time to visit @HolocaustMuseum. It’s a few blocks away. https://t.co/24fNoMUyS8

— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) April 11, 2017

Someone get @PressSec a refresher history course on Hitler stat #Icantbelievehereallysaidthat

— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) April 11, 2017

? @AprilDRyan‘s reaction as Spicer went on about “not even Hitler,” like… “Is everyone else hearing this?” pic.twitter.com/t2NK9VP4xy

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) April 11, 2017

It is important to note that in WWII the U.S is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, through the use of nuclear and napalm strikes, though not being considered ‘chemical weapons’, I believe we can agree they belong in the same category.

Also, in the early 1950’s the government had the army deploy motorized blowers on top of residential high-rises in low-income, mostly black St. Louis neighborhoods, including areas where as much as 70% of the residents were children under 12. In an attempt to cover up what the government was actually doing, they lied claiming it was an experiment with a smokescreen to protect the city from Russian attacks. However, they were actually pumping the air full of hundreds of pounds of finely powdered zinc cadmium sulfide. The government admitted there was a second ingredient in the chemical powder, but whether or not that ingredient was radioactive remains classified. Since the tests an alarming number of local residents have developed cancer.

In closing, governments and ruling classes throughout history are responsible for using tactics such as chemical warfare against their own people. They—governments— will continue to do so and lie about it through the guise of experiments and false flag attacks. Shifting the blame on others by comparing one tyrant to another does not excuse the fact hundreds of thousands of human beings fall victim to chemical warfare at the behest of their own governments throughout history.

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President Trump believes it is in the “vital national security interest of the United States” to attack Syria over the use of poison gas.

Article via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity by Ron Paul

Thursday’s US missile attack on Syria must represent the quickest foreign policy U-turn in history.

Less than a week after the White House gave Assad permission to stay on as president of his own country, President Trump decided that the US had to attack Syria and demand Assad’s ouster after a chemical attack earlier in the week. Trump blamed Assad for the attack, stated that “something’s going to happen” in retaliation, and less than two days later he launched a volley of 59 Tomahawk missiles (at a cost of $1.5 million each) onto a military airfield near where the chemical attack took place.

President Trump said it is in the “vital national security interest of the United States” to attack Syria over the use of poison gas. That is nonsense. Even if what Trump claims about the gas attack is true – and we’ve seen no evidence that it is – there is nothing about an isolated incident of inhuman cruelty thousands of miles from our borders that is in our “vital national security interest.” Even if Assad gassed his own people last week it hardly means he will launch chemical attacks on the United States even if he had the ability, which he does not.

From the moment the chemical attack was blamed on Assad, however, I expressed my doubts about the claims. It simply makes no sense for Assad to attack civilians with a chemical weapon just as he is winning his war against ISIS and al-Qaeda and has been told by the US that it no longer seeks regime change. On the verge of victory, he commits a suicidal act to no strategic or tactical military advantage? More likely the gas attack was a false flag by the rebels – or perhaps even by our CIA – as a last ditch effort to forestall a rebel defeat in the six year war.

Would the neocons and the mainstream media lie to us about what happened last week in Syria? Of course they would. They lied us into attacking Iraq, they lied us into attacking Gaddafi, they lied us into seeking regime change in Syria in the first place. We should always assume they are lying.

Who benefits from the US attack on Syria? ISIS, which immediately after the attack began a ground offensive. Does President Trump really want the US to act as ISIS’s air force?

The gas attack, which took some 70 civilian lives, was horrible and must be condemned. But we must also remember that US bombs in Syria have killed hundreds of civilians. Just recently, US bombs killed 300 Iraqi civilians in one strike! Does it really make a difference if you are killed by poison gas or by a US missile?

What’s next for President Trump in Syria? Russia has not backed down from its claim that the poison gas leaked as a result of a conventional Syrian bomb on an ISIS chemical weapons factory. Moscow claims it is determined to defend its ally, Syria. Will Trump unilaterally declare a no fly zone in parts of Syria and attempt to prevent Russian air traffic? Some suggest this is his next move. It is one that carries a great danger of igniting World War Three.

Donald Trump’s attack on Syria was clearly illegal. However, Congress shows no interest in reining in this out-of-control president. We should fear any US escalation and must demand that our Representatives prohibit it. If there ever was a time to flood the Capitol Hill switchboard demanding an end to US military action in Syria, it is now!

This article first appeared on RonPaulInstitute.org and was authored by Ron Paul.

The post Ron Paul: After Trump’s Syria Attack, What Comes Next? appeared first on We Are Change.

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Article via The Anti-Media by Darius Shahtahmasebi

Who benefits from a military strike on the Syrian government? Certainly not the ideals that Donald J. Trump and his supporters claim to stand for considering the Syrian government is famous for protecting the rights of Christians and other minority groups. Conversely, according to a report from a think-tank founded by alleged war-criminal Tony Blair, the majority of the rebel groups currently attempting to defeat the Syrian government share ISIS’ core ideology. The report also found it was pointless to distinguish between these groups because they all work together on the ground.

These groups could establish Sharia law in an instant if Syrian president Bashar al-Assad falls, and this includes the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has been hijacked by extremists for years.

So what do we know about Trump’s recent decision to strike an airbase facility inside Syria? We know the U.S. government has accused the base of being complicit in chemical weapons attacks, but we have not been presented with any evidence for this claim. However, what we do know about the recent chemical weapons attack that inspired Trump to do a complete 180 on his approach to Syria is that, as identified by Scott Ritter, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq:

“A critical piece of information that has largely escaped the reporting in the mainstream media is that Khan Sheikhoun is ground zero for the Islamic jihadists who have been at the center of the anti-Assad movement in Syria since 2011. Up until February 2017, Khan Sheikhoun was occupied by a pro-ISIS group known as Liwa al-Aqsa that was engaged in an oftentimes-violent struggle with its competitor organization, Al Nusra Front (which later morphed into Tahrir al-Sham, but under any name functioning as Al Qaeda’s arm in Syria) for resources and political influence among the local population.”

Further, what we actually know for sure about the military base targeted by Trump is that the base was integral in the fight against ISIS. As noted by the Los Angeles Times:

“For residents of Shayrat and other villages, the airbase was instrumental in keeping at bay Islamic State militants hiding the eastern district of Homs.” [emphasis added]

With the base now potentially damaged, residents expect ISIS to advance in the near future. For one resident, Trump’s attack was “proof that the U.S. helps Daesh [an Arabic acronym for ISIS]”.

According to the governor of Homs, ISIS did, in fact, use the American air raid to launch an offensive. Reuters quoted the governor as saying Trump’s attack amounted to “support for the armed terrorist groups, and it is an attempt to weaken the capabilities of the Syrian Arab Army to combat terrorism.” One should bear in mind that some of this information comes from Russian and Lebanese news media sources who have a vested interest in propping up Assad. However, the source on the ground is reportedly the Homs governor, and if you find yourself questioning this as a source but trust Western media’s coverage of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (which is run in England by one man who owns a clothes shop), then it may be time to reevaluate your stance on objective sources.

Bolstering the governor’s claim, Ritter also noted that ISIS was a prime beneficiary of Trump’s attack. Ritter concluded:

“The other winner in this sorry story is ISIS, which took advantage of the American strike against Al Shayrat to launch a major offensive against Syrian government forces around the city of Palmyra (Al Shayrat had served as the principal air base for operations in the Palmyra region). The breakdown in relations between Russia and the United States means that, for the foreseeable future at least, the kind of coordination that had been taking place in the fight against ISIS is a thing of the past, a fact that can only bode well for the fighters of ISIS. For a man who placed so much emphasis on defeating ISIS, President Trump’s actions can only be viewed as a self-inflicted wound, a kind of circular firing squad that marks the actions of a Keystone Cop, and not the Commander in Chief of the most powerful nation in the world.”

Attacking Assad isn’t a Trump policy. It is a Hillary Clinton policy that has crept its way into the Trump administration through the ousting of key administration officials who looked to strengthen ties with Russia, coupled with the replacement of these officials by establishment insiders. Even without these damning facts, Trump surrounded himself with war hawks very early on in his political career, thereby quelling any hope that he was truly going to “drain the swamp.”

The only people who benefit from these attacks on the Syrian government are religious fanatics backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the U.S. and its allies — certainly not Syrians on the ground (and certainly not Christians and other minority groups we would expect Trump to be more concerned about).

If you don’t believe this assessment, try to find a democratic fighting force within Syria concerned primarily with ousting Assad that is not in some way shape or form linked to al-Qaeda (and please send it my way).

Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

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Warns Russia Will Become Irrelevant in Middle East

Article via Antiwar

On the eve of his visit to Moscow, and in the wake of a Kremlin announcement he won’t be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at all, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continued to lash Russia publicly for backing the Syrian government, insisting that President Bashar Assad’s rule is “coming to an end.”

Whether thus amounts to a statement of US policy is unclear, as US officials have been send very mixed messages on their stance on Syria, after attacking them last week. Tillerson himself insisted just days ago that Assad’s future was still up to the Syrians, despite having announced before that that the US was in the process of implementing regime change.

Tillerson went on to predict that if Russia refused US demands to abandon Assad, they would effectively become “irrelevant” in the Middle East. This echoes other US officials’ demands that Russia unconditionally abandon Assad, amid ongoing allegations of Russian complicity in a putative gas attack.

The timing of Tillerson’s comment is particularly noteworthy, however, as he is scheduled to arrive in Moscow by the end of the night, and has already been spurned by Putin. As tension continues to rise, it remains to be seen what can possibly be accomplished in Tillerson’s meeting with Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

This article first appeared on Antiwar.com and was authored by Jason Ditz.

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In this video, Luke Rudkowski covers all the latest breaking news surrounding North Korea and the inevitable action that the U.S. and Donald Trump will take.

China and Russia are also involved in this international scenario, as we break down for you in the video showcasing what previously has happened between these global forces.
What’s Really Happening In North Korea:

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Article via Geopolitics Alert by Jim Carey

Obviously all everyone has been talking about this past week is the allegation made primarily by the Western media that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used the lethal chemical weapon, Sarin, on civilians in Idlib province and the retaliatory US missile strike on a Syrian military airbase that followed.

Now we’re sure our readers know the mainstream media habitually lies and tows the same line as the Pentagon, mainly due to their defense contractor sponsors and shareholders. Yet we also know that there have been a lot of people cheering for Trump “acting presidential” and “finally doing what Obama wouldn’t.”

Even liberals, who portray Trump as being the next Hitler and spent over a year saying he couldn’t possibly be trusted to command the massive power of the US military machine, cheered as Trump took unilateral and illegal action against the legitimate government of Syria.

The obvious problem with this, as a lot of people have pointed out, is that the “evidence” the media and top US officials presented either came from extremely unreliable sources, ran counter to explanations issued by rival powers, or was just completely impossible to confirm. This article is intended to debunk the justifications used by the US that were presented as fact and not allowed to be investigated by any independent organization.

This will be a quick simple breakdown of why all of us should question the supposed facts presented this past week, and to help our readers educate their friends and family who immediately went all in on the propaganda.

Let’s start with the obvious:

The Syrian Military’s Progress and Position of Strength

A lot of people paying attention will recall the most significant victory of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) that occurred near the end of last year: Aleppo. This was a major victory for the Syrian government but it was also followed by several less publicized important advances by the SAA in their fight against the Islamic State (IS), former al-Qaeda affiliate Jahbat al-Nusra, and a long list of other ‘rebel’ groups that had allied with these internationally recognized terrorist organizations.

One of these victories was the offensive launched by the SAA to retake the ancient city of Palmyra. This was another major operation where the SAA emerged victorious in reclaiming the city from IS and then maintaining control despite several counter-offensives by the jihadists that occurred alongside Israeli airstrikes.

Yet, even while facing opposition from both terrorists and hostile foreign governments the SAA didn’t resort to anything like the use of chemical weapons. These victories without chemical weapons have been the norm in Syria for over a year now, which makes the accusation that Assad would arbitrarily gas civilians questionable.

In fact, there have been no instances where the West had strong evidence of Assad using chemical weapons since the 2013 attack in the Ghouta suburb of Damascus which crossed former President Obama’s ‘red line.’ Despite an investigation into the Ghouta attack by the United Nations (UN), the accusation of Assad using chemical weapons was still never proven.

Of course, once the US makes an accusation like this, something ‘has to be done.’ At the time Obama had no support for any kind of intervention in Syria which leads us to our next point; the agreement reached between the US and Russia to destroy Assad’s chemical stockpiles.

Syria’s Chemical Disarmament 

In the opinion of many of those who were opposed to any kind US military response in Syria follow the allegations concerning Ghouta, Russia made a generous offer. With facilitation by Moscow, the international community would be allowed to send weapons inspectors to Syria to supervise the destruction of Assad’s chemical weapon stockpiles and the shuttering of facilities where they were produced.

Under this major diplomatic agreement, inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) went to Syria. The OPCW played the crucial role of impartial international observer to fulfill the obligation they were founded on – “to implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).”

UN personnel along with the OPCW inspectors began issuing reports on Syria’s chemical weapons in October of 2013. According to both groups, the Syrian government was fully complying with the agreed on milestones and timeline for disarmament.

The only chemical agent that could be weaponized excluded from the agreement was chlorine, due to it’s many industrial uses. Other than that, Assad was fully compliant in destroying the chemical weapons and the tools to manufacture them in the areas controlled by his government. This was even acknowledged by the US State Department under John Kerry.

The important thing to take from that last paragraph is that Assad was compliant in the regions of Syria he controlled. By the end of 2013, Syria was already going into the third year of being consumed by the war that saw large swaths of territory – like Idlib – under the control of a range of groups from US backed “moderate opposition” to IS.

Chemical Weapons of the ‘Opposition’

This left literal tons of chemical weapons components inaccessible to inspectors and in the hands of whichever terror organizations got to them first.  This presumably includes facilities in Idlib, where many of the al Nusra affiliated “rebels” were sent, on buses provided by the Syrian government, during the liberation of Aleppo.

There is also the fact that in areas formerly held by terrorist organizations, the SAA and Russian soldiers have found components used in the manufacture of chemical weapons. Not all of this was left over from before the war either, with some of the stockpiles clearly labeled indicating they originated from the Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.

Another thing the rebels apparently took with them were their civilian supporters. Some of the same people who made many of the questionable claims concerning the “slaughter” in Aleppo are now also the sources of the eyewitness accounts in Idlib.

White Helmets and Jihadists as ‘Credible Sources’

Many outlets have pointed out the reasons to be skeptical of the “neutral” White Helmets, a group that seems to end up operating wherever al Nusra is currently located. This was no different in Idlib where the first pictures of the chemical attack were full of some of the same White Helmets volunteers that can be seen in photos from Aleppo.

The White Helmets provided most of the first hand accounts directly following what they assure western media was a chemical attack. Yet there were is shady sources responsible for more of the ‘evidence’ used by the US after victims reached the local hospital.

In fact the doctor responsible for much of the footage released once the sarin victims reached the hospital was a man named Shajul Islam. Islam was officially designated a “committed jihadist” by the UK’s foreign intel service, MI6 in 2016.

Some of this evidence is also agreed on by some non-terror connected groups, like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). But what western media won’t discuss in detail is that, generally speaking, these watchdogs are typically anti-Assad and the SOHR in particular is composed of one man located in England who hasn’t been to Syria in 15 years.

The last matter to address is the simple fact of the current geopolitical situation that this attack occurred in.

The Timing of a Chemical Attack by Assad

The most obvious question many have asked about these latest allegations against Assad has obviously been, why now?

Days before the accusations against the Syrian government, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters that toppling Assad was no longer a priority. This sentiment was also repeated by the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, although she walked back that comment three days later and then led the charge in the Security Council against Assad last week.

Following this seeming change in position, both liberal and conservative US pundits and politicians claimed this was what sent a signal to Damascus that the use of chemical weapons would be tolerated. However, if we really think this position through though, it seems unlikely that Assad would risk his growing list of victories with a move he already knows would anger the global community.

Despite this long list of evidence the US still decided to violate international law and carry out Thursday’s unilateral strike. There was no impartial investigation beforehand, something that the Bolivian ambassador to the UN pointed out was incredibly similar to Colin Powell’s testimony in 2003 forcing the western allies to back a US war Iraq (he even brought out the infamous picture of Powell presenting a vial of “Saddam’s WMDs).

Now, four days later there are real questions the world is asking. Some high level US politicians have come out denouncing the failure to investigate and now even UN officials are poking holes in the west’s official story.

The situation with Syria is truly beginning to resemble that of the beating of war drums against Iraq in 2003. Let’s not let this become another war built on bad evidence that will inevitably result in even more deaths than Syria has already seen in the last 6 years.

This article first appeared on GeopoliticsAlert.com and was authored by Jim Carey.

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Article via The Anti-Media by Carey Wedler

The world’s eyes and ears have once again turned toward Syria following last week’s chemical weapons attack and U.S. President Donald Trump’s subsequent air strikes on the Assad government. Mainstream media, independent media, and social media platforms are fixing fierce attention on the ongoing developments.

These events undoubtedly deserve widespread, ongoing scrutiny. From the United States government’s lack of evidence that the Syrian government was behind the chemical attack to the media’s complicity in driving a pro-war narrative and president Trump’s hypocrisy in bombing Syria — after criticizing former president Barack Obama for doing the same thing — further critical analysis of the recent airstrikes is vital.

But even as skepticism toward these events should remain heightened, so should awareness of countless other major developments.

Here are five to follow:

1. Trump Appoints Pharmaceutical Consultant to Head the FDA — This week, the president appointed Scott Gottlieb, a pharmaceutical industry insider who has served the boards of multiple pharmaceutical companies, to chair the Food and Drug Administration. Gottlieb currently still works as a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. He has received $414,000 from GSK, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. He has also received tens of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Mikart, as well as other corporations — including Goldman Sachs. He has taken several trips through Washington’s revolving door, with brief stints at the FDA mixed in with multiple positions consulting pharmaceutical companies. Trump’s pick follows in the footsteps of Barack Obama, who also appointed a pharmaceutical industry insider to chair the FDA.

2. U.S. Military announces it will deploy 1,500 more troops to Afghanistan this year — The U.S. Army announced last Friday it would send 1,500 Alaska-based troops to Afghanistan as part of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, an extension of Operation Enduring Freedom,  the 13-year war in Afghanistan. The 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division was set to be downsized in 2015, but the Army’s most recent decision nullifies that plan. The Army said the coming deployment is part of a regular rotation but also said it is a response to “emerging mission requirements.”

The Army also activated 1,500 troops last December for Freedom’s Sentinel, suggesting the latest deployment amounts to the continuation of a seemingly endless war in the violence-ravaged country — regardless of who is president

3. Wikileaks reveals CIA tactics to implant malware in Windows-based computers — On Friday, Wikileaks continued the release of its Vault7 Series, documents it claims to have hacked from the CIA that detail the extent of the agency’s overreach. Ars Technica reported:

“Friday’s installment includes 27 documents related to ‘Grasshopper,’ the codename for a set of software tools used to build customized malware for Windows-based computers. The Grasshopper framework provides building blocks that can be combined in unique ways to suit the requirements of a given surveillance or intelligence operation.”

The leaks also included the CIA’s tactics for bypassing anti-virus protection and its use of bank-fraud malware called Carberp. “Once the Carberp source code was leaked in 2013, security experts warned it was akin to ‘handing a bazooka to a child,’” Ars Technica noted.

The leaks follow previous revelations that documented the extent of the CIA’s surveillance abilities, including its capacity to hack into iOs and Android operating systems. Those leaks also revealed the U.S. government was actively working to undermine the security of U.S. tech companies.

The same agency taking it upon itself to hack into private networks has also spent $1 billion annually arming radical rebels in Syria, some of whom have been implicated in the 2013 chemical attack former President Barack Obama used to justify his attempt to bomb the war-torn nation.

4. Tensions between the United States and North Korea continue to escalate — As Trump bombs Syria, the situation on the east Asian peninsula looks like it could devolve into violence, as well. The U.S. is accusing North Korea of aggression over its development of missiles and nuclear weapons — two technologies the U.S. also has at its disposal. However, unlike the United States, North Korea has never used missiles or nuclear weapons against another country. NBC News has reported that the U.S. may move its own nuclear weapons into South Korea as a deterrent to the North. All the hype about North Korean “aggression” should be taken with a grain of salt considering the country hasn’t officially attacked another country outside of Korea ever.

5. Tensions escalate in the South China Sea after Trump meets with Chinese president — Trump was physically meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping while the Tomahawk missiles began dropping on Syria. We cannot discount the possibility that Trump may have been trying to send China a message of military strength and unpredictability.

The U.S. and China have been on a collision course as China has sought to assert itself defensively in the South China Sea. China has constructed and militarized artificial islands, while the U.S. has positioned its navy for a confrontation in the region. U.S. allies like Japan and the Philippines are locked in a perpetual chess match with China as the powers seek to stake their territorial claims to resources in the China Sea.

China is also North Korea’s closest ally and is viewed as the only entity capable of externally controlling the North. At the time of this article’s publication, China is in the process of moving 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea in preparation for a possible U.S. intervention and the subsequent fallout from it.

***

While the United States starts possibly another war against a sovereign country under Trump’s leadership, it’s important to pay attention to other, equally concerning events unfolding in the U.S. and around the world. While the media and politicians heap praise on Trump for bombing a new country and anti-war marchers take to the streets, we must inform ourselves now and take action before further U.S.-sanctioned carnage engulfs the world and before domestic corruption usurps our rights and freedoms at home.

By Carey Wedler and Nick Bernabe / Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo

The post Not Just Syria: 5 Huge News Stories To Keep An Eye On Amid The Madness appeared first on We Are Change.

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North Korean state media outlets on Tuesday warned of a nuclear attack on the United States in response to any sign of U.S. aggression or a pre-emptive strike as a U.S. Navy fleets steams towards the Korean Peninsula and unconfirmed reports of 150,000 Chinese troops massing on the Hermit Kingdom’s border.

North Korea warns of nuclear strike if provoked by U.S. warships: ‘We will take the toughest counteraction’ https://t.co/gZmjtfDpPg pic.twitter.com/vecwITUntl

— National Post (@nationalpost) April 11, 2017

North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the rogue state was prepared to respond to any aggression by the United States.

“Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theater but also in the U.S. mainland,” it said.

Responding to the United States’ recent airstrikes on a Syrian airfield, the newspaper also said: “The DPRK will increase in every way its military capability for self-defence to cope with the U.S. evermore reckless moves for a war and will defend itself with its own force.”

The Pyongyang Times also published similar rhetoric quoting a DPRK delegate, who declared on April 3 at the 2017 Meeting of the United Nations Disarmament Commission, that “instability and risks of nuclear war are growing worldwide as the US is recklessly building up its nuclear forces and other nuclear weapons states are following suit not to be outdone.”

“It is thanks to the DPRK commitment to peace and its tremendous nuclear deterrent for self-defence that peace has been preserved on the Korean peninsula despite the US’ nuclear war moves.

“As long as the US and its vassal forces persistently pose nuclear threat and blackmail and continue the nuclear war games masked as annual ones at the doorstep of the DPRK, the DPRK will as ever bolster up its capabilities for self-defence and preemptive attack with the nuclear force as the pivot,” he said.

Meanwhile, KCNA, another North Korean news agency declared: “The U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises may bring the Korean peninsula and its vicinity to nuclear holocaust.”

“The world progressives are well aware that the annual U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises are aimed to mount a preemptive attack and stifle the DPRK,” it claimed.

WeAreChange reporters around the globe are closely monitoring this fluid and potentially volatile situation. Be sure to regularly check www.WeAreChange.org for updates.

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Chosun, a prominent South Korean newspaper has claimed that “about 150,000 troops in two groups” have been deployed to the Yalu River, which serves as a border between China and North Korea. Translated reports say that:

“The Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops in two groups to prepare for unforeseen circumstances… because of the prospect of taking ‘military options,’ such as preemptive attacks on North Korea, just as the United States has launched an air raid on Syria.”

Clearly Chosun is reporting a story with massive implications here, as 150,000 troops is an army seemingly ready to engage in WWIII. Since this is a massive claim, we tried to find sources to back up this claim.

Another news organization, NKnews, suggests that China’s FM has rejected these claims. NKnews is an international private news organization which covers North Korea. According to their website, they have “staff in Washington DC, Seoul, and London.”

According to NKnews, the Chinese FM said:

“There were similar reports by the Yonhap News Agency in the past, which were proved groundless and false in the end. I’m wondering where you got this information.”

The article goes on to say that “evidence for the claims came in the form of a video – since taken down – which showed troops being moved through the streets of Shenyang, a city over 100km from the DPRK’s border. The story was picked up by several outlets, like the UK’s Daily Mail, though they omitted that the Chosun Ilbo had called it a “rumor” in its headline.”

Until we are able to prove whether or not China has actually sent this massive amount of troops to the North Korean border, it seems that this report will remain unconfirmed.

The post Were 150,000 Chinese Troops Really Deployed To The North Korean Border? appeared first on We Are Change.