The recent airstrikes against Syria were nothing but “political theater” orchestrated to please the Deep State in Washington, which has been trying to remove President Donald Trump from office, says a writer and analyst in Indiana.

“The question here is, what was the mission?” asked Dr. E Michael Jones, editor of Culture Wars magazine.  “The attack on Syria did not change anything on the ground. It was an elaborately orchestrated piece of political theater.”

On Saturday morning, President Trump declared “Mission Accomplished!” in a tweet about the airstrikes he had earlier ordered against Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack outside Damascus last week.

“The mission from Donald Trump’s point of view was to stay in office, to protect (himself) from the Deep State which has been trying to remove him for two years now,” Jones said.

“The strategy here is to do everything you can to foster the power of the Israel lobby, and Israel and the Jews in the United States,” he added. “The Jews are Trump’s only hope to stay in office. So that was his mission accomplished.”

The US reportedly notified Israel ahead of the missile strikes in Syria.

“The second part of this was of course the Deep State’s mission which was to keep the United States troops in Syria,” Jones said, adding that this “whole play of political theater” began when Trump said he was going to pull American troops out of Syria.

“This is what provoked the false-flag gas attack” in Douma, he noted. “And now the US troops are going to stay in Syria.”

Late last month, Trump announced that the US would withdraw from Syria “very soon,” just hours after the Pentagon highlighted the need for American troops to remain in the country.

“We will be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” Trump said during a speech in Ohio.

Culled from Presstv

The Southern Cameroons crisis that started in 2016 has finally entered a very critical phase. The Yaounde government is in trouble as the two “cubes of sugar” refuse to melt.

According to a source in the military, many army soldiers have lost their lives and hundreds have been wounded in the jungles of Ndian, Manyu and Meme Divisions. The wounded are alive and are today telling their stories and many clearly indicate that there is something mystical in the way the Southern Cameroons fighters conduct themselves.

They are at a loss for words having witnessed the death and destruction the Southern Cameroonian ragtag army has inflicted on the government’s military. Our source adds that the Southern Cameroons crisis has become a business for many high-ranking army officers, especially the generals and colonels who are directly involved in efforts to roll back the advancing Southern Cameroonian army.

Today, many French-speaking Cameroonian soldiers are scared of going to fight in the restive English-speaking regions, having seen the type of wounds some of their colleagues have sustained in the battlefield. It’s now normal for junior officers to bribe their seniors so that they don’t get sent to Southern Cameroons which in the minds of many army soldiers is synonymous with death.

It is also being rumored that the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assoumou, is making a huge fortune from the chaos that is playing out in southern Cameroons. A source close to the presidency has indicated that even the president is gradually questioning the rationale behind the fighting, as there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Cameroon government officials are gradually coming to terms with the fact that the two “cubes of sugar” they thought would easily melt, will unfortunately not be melting anytime soon. The source added that the government was admitting that it had underestimated the role the Southern Cameroons Diaspora would play in the entire process.

Government officials, the source says, are aware that if the crisis has to fizzle out, the Diaspora must be appeased. But for now, they are not sure of who to talk to. The situation has spiralled out of control and it will be hard to stabilize the region without making peace with a Southern Cameroonian Diaspora that numbers well over three million and it is determined to give the government a good run for its money.

The human cost of the conflict is staggering. Soldiers and civilians have been killed in a conflict that could have been avoided. The government has simply stopped announcing the killing of army soldiers, as this may have a huge impact on those who are being sent to the restive English-speaking regions.

Besides, announcing the death of army soldiers could cause the docile Francophones to start asking questions about the essence of a war that was unnecessary. Despite this silence, Francophone Cameroonians are gradually becoming more vocal. The families that have not seen their loved ones or heard from them have begun asking questions about their whereabouts.

“It is unbelievable that I have not heard from my brother since he was sent to Ndian Division in January. I have called his number, but I keep on hearing that it is no longer in service. My brother was very communicative before he got deployed to the Southwest region. I have tried contacting the military, but none of those I have talked to has been able to give a clear-cut answer. I know the military is hiding something from us, but for how long will they do that. I know of a friend who was in the same situation and the top military brass kept telling them that their brother was on mission, until his friends sent them pictures of their brother having been killed by those ruthless Ambazonian fighters. The family has now got closure, but it does no longer trust the Cameroon army,” a relative of a soldier on mission told our correspondent in Yaounde.

While the physical wounds could be easily healed, the psychological wounds might never go away. Many army soldiers are now dealing with mental health issues and many of them have been caught in a nightmare that will not be going away anytime soon. For those who have killed civilians in the process, theirs appears to be the kingdom of tears. Many of them cannot sleep and are having a tough time eating.

Instead of dealing with these cases, the military has simply discharged some of these young men from the military to enable them find lasting solutions to their psychological crisis. But discharging them from the military does not look like a good decision. Some of these psychological cases are clearly exposing the government. They are telling the tales of agony that are coming from the war fronts in the English-speaking regions of the country.

The wounded are letting the world know the truth about the state’s finances. The government clearly lacks the resources to deal with the victims of a war it hastily declared. Many of the families affected by this situation are really questioning the wisdom behind this senseless war.

“Look at how my brother is suffering today. He was healthy before he left for Mamfe to fight those the government said were the enemies of the state. He got scarred both physically and psychologically and today, he has been abandoned by the government that promised to help them in the event of any casualties. He cannot sleep. He has not slept for days and he keeps on saying that he is seeing dead people around him,” the sister of a psychologically scarred army soldier told our correspondent.

But the government’s greatest problem is not the physically and psychologically wounded. It has found a way of ridding itself of this burden. According to the government, it suffices to give the affected family some money and discharging those scarred from the military. Since the system is not organized and data is hardly kept, it is a lot harder for the population to really figure out the truth.

The media is not developed and those who pass off as journalists, do not have the financial and intellectual capacity to conduct investigations that will clearly expose the government. This gives the government the feeling that it is off the hook. But the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International are carefully gathering information in this regard and this will surely embarrass the government when the time comes.

But this appears to be the least of the government’s concerns. Its focus is on its leaky treasury that is spelling hard times for the country’s burgeoning civil service. The country’s financial indicators are trending very low. Government coffers are empty, and many ministries do not have the resources to carry out some of the main projects that had been included in this year’s budget.

Many missions have been canceled and senior civil servants have been urged to reduce cost as much as possible. The Southern Cameroons crisis has hit the government like a ton of bricks. There is panic within government circles, as empty coffers spell huge problems for a government that is yet to recover from the punch it has taken to the liver.

Its image and reputation have been badly battered. Its noise about having one of the best military on the continent has turned out to be a bluff. Ambazonian fighters have put their young and poorly trained troops through their paces. They are simply not a match for these young, determined English-speaking fighters who are determined to take the war to East Cameroon.

The government is simply overwhelmed. It is out of resources and the French who have been supporting its military action are gradually back-pedaling. The French understand that the government has stirred a hornet’s nest and it will take time for it to find the appropriate solution to this problem. Even the government now knows that it is in for a long haul and if it has to successfully prosecute this war, then it must turn to other sources.

The French alone will not provide the much-needed resources to roll back the various armed groups in the English-speaking regions. This is being compounded by the government’s legendary corruption that has become its hallmark. The military generals are making hay while the sun shines, as the government heads abroad, cap in hand, to beg for money to prosecute a warthat was not even necessary.

Mr. Biya’s recent trip to China was designed for him to sweet-talk the Chinese into giving him money so that he could meet his domestic commitments. But the Chinese, noted for their craft and intelligence, carefully steered everything towards business and bilateral cooperation.

They understand the Biya government is a deep dry hole. They are simply not interested in pouring their money in a venture that will never yield any dividends.  Mr. Biya might have been promised lots of things, but he knows that it will be an uphill task for him to get free money from the Chinese who themselves are dealing with some financial headwinds, especially as the global economy is facing some tough challenges.

The Biya government is clearly on the back foot. Its dwindling resources are keeping government officials awake all night. Ambazonian fighters just have to continue pouring pressure on the old and ailing government and it will crack very soon. With its treasury running short of money, it is clear that civil servants will soon be taking to the streets to call for the payment of their salaries. If this happens, even the docile Francophones will join Southern Cameroonians to kiss goodbye to the reckless and inefficient Yaounde government. The writing is clearly on the wall and with elections looming large, the government knows this year may be its last.

It might have held senatorial elections which of course do not represent anything. But parliamentary and presidential elections will surely be a tough test for a government that is cash-strapped. The Ambazonian fighters are prepared to disrupt the elections. The government lacks the military and policing capacity to ensure the elections hold across the entire country. Boko Haram is also messing up things in the north and Central African Republic fighters are sowing chaos in the east. It is clear that the government has a lot on its plate. Its best option, according to political experts, is for it to sue for peace. But will its legendary arrogance let it do the right thing?

Cameroon is treading a dangerous path. The international community can not continue to look the other way while this bomb continues to tick. If the world does not act fast, the bomb might go off and it will bring down the entire Central African region. The ordinary Cameroonian, who is an innocent victim, is calling on the international community to help protect him against his protector – the government – that has been maiming and killing its own people. If the international community does not step in very fast, Cameroon will end up being another basket case in a continent that has had more than its fair share of chaos.

By Kingsley Betek

Cameroon Concord News Group

US President Donald Trump “has the power” to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the so-called Russia probe, the White House says as Republicans warn him not to do so.

“He certainly believes that he has the power to do so,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday. “I know a number of individuals in the legal community, and including at the Department of Justice say he has the power to do so.”

This is while Republicans in US Senate are taking measures to insulate Mueller from being dismissed.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis is pushing the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up his legislation aimed at protecting Mueller.

“It’s a good bill that’s going to have enduring value beyond this presidency. I think the president’s frustrated, I may be if I were in the same position,” Tillis said. “But I do think it’s a bill that’s worthy of a mark-up in Judiciary and sending it to the floor.”

Legal experts believe that the president cannot directly fire him Mueller.

Republicans lawmakers are trying to keep Mueller’s probe going after the FBI raided the offices of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Firing Mueller could end Trump’s presidency, Republicans have warned.

Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the only one who has the authority as the department is in charge of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Trump’s aides in Russia.

The investigation seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

Source: Presstv

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for the expansion of Iran’s economic ties with Senegal, the first destination in his tour of African and Latin American states.

The top Iranian diplomat arrived early Monday in Senegal as part of his four-nation tour, which will also take him to Namibia, Brazil and Uruguay at the head of a high-level political and economic team.

Upon arrival, Zarif said the enhancement of bilateral ties in general, and economic relations in specific, with the destination countries is on the agenda of his tour.

He said Iran has good economic cooperation with Senegal as an important West African nation, adding that his talks in Dakar would focus on trade ties besides political and regional issues.

The Iranian minister highlighted Iran’s active role in Senegal’s automotive sector, expressing hope that the ground be paved during the trip for Tehran to begin exporting non-oil products as well as technical and engineering services to the country.

The Islamic Revolution in 1979 resulted in a fundamental overhaul of Iranian foreign policy, changing its focus from the West to the developing world.

Zarif last toured Africa in October 2017, visiting South Africa, Uganda, and Niger.

He also went on a six-leg Latin America tour a year earlier, traveling to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

Source: Presstv

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday will begin a four-leg tour of African and Latin American countries to discuss the strengthening of relations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the top diplomat will head a ranking political and economic delegation on the tour, which will take him to Senegal, Namibia, Brazil, and Uruguay.

Also accompanying him are representatives of dozens of Iranian companies as well as entrepreneurs from commercial, economic, and science-based spheres of activity, who hail from public and private sectors.

The minister will be holding meetings with political, economic, and parliamentary officials from the four countries. He will also be delivering addresses at joint economic and commercial gatherings as well as some think tanks.

Zarif last toured Africa last October, visiting South Africa, Uganda, and Niger.

He went on a six-leg Latin America tour a year earlier, traveling to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, and Venezuela.

The Islamic Revolution in 1979 resulted in a fundamental overhaul of Iranian foreign policy, changing its focus from the West to the developing world.

The former government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promoted the notion of an Iranian “South-South” strategy, aiming to expand relations with Africa and Latin America. In 2006, Ahmadinejad famously attended the African Union summit in Gambia as a guest of honor.

Source: Presstv

A US congressman has resigned after being accused of sexual harassment by a female former aide amid a string of sexual assault claims in the country.

Republican Representative Blake Farenthold of Texas resigned Friday from Congress a week after the House ethics committee said it was investigating him over allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation involving the female former staff member.

“While I planned on serving out the remainder of my term in Congress, I know in my heart it’s time for me to move along and look for new ways to serve,” the 56-year-old congressman said in a social media video statement.

Farenthold, who represented Corpus Christi in the US House of Representatives, has denied the accusation, but had said in December that he would not seek re-election.

“I had no idea how to run a congressional office, and as a result, I allowed a workplace culture to take root in my office that was too permissive and decidedly unprofessional,” Farenthold said in December.

According to a Politico report in December, the congressional Office of Compliance had paid $84,000 from a public fund on behalf of Farenthold for a sexual harassment claim.

This comes after several other US lawmakers have either stepped down or not sought re-election over sexual harassment accusations. President Donald Trump has also been accused by at least two dozen women of inappropriate sexual behavior.

The wave of sexual scandals began when Harvey Weinstein, a leading Hollywood producer, was hit with allegations of sexual harassment, assault or rape.

Trump has said that he was happy that women were now coming forward accusing lawmakers and media figures, many of whom Democrats, of sexual misconduct.

Source: Presstv

Corruption investigators in Ukraine are looking into allegations that late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gave a multi-million euro donation to the presidential campaign of Yulia Tymoshenko in 2010, Ukrainian MP Volodymyr Ariev said.

Tymoshenko denies the claims, but reports of past illicit campaign financing could damage the Ukrainian opposition leader, who is currently beating President Petro Poroshenko in opinion polls ahead of next year’s presidential vote.

Ariev, who is a member of Poroshenko’s ruling BPP faction, said he and other MPs had formally asked the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) look into the allegations published by pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat in February.

As soon as this information appeared in the newspaper, three MPs sent a request to NABU with a request to verify this information.

According to Asharq al-Awsat, a Gaddafi representative flew by private jet to Kiev to deliver a briefcase with 4 million euros ($4.9 million) in cash to help finance Tymoshenko’s ultimately unsuccessful 2010 presidential bid.

“As soon as this information appeared in the newspaper, three MPs sent a request to NABU with a request to verify this information,” Ariev told Reuters after he posted a photo on Facebook of NABU’s alleged written acceptance of the request.

Under Ukrainian law, state bodies must investigate any claims if requested by members of parliament. No criminal case has been launched.

Asked to comment on the allegations, the press service of Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party said: “It is nonsense. The information is not correct.”

NABU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gadaffi’s financing of foreign elections

The case threatens to draw Tymoshenko into a broader scandal surrounding Gaddafi’s alleged bankrolling of foreign elections.

France is investigating whether former President Nicolas Sarkozy received 5 million euros of Libyan cash to finance his 2007 election campaign.

Tymoshenko has been prime minister twice and was imprisoned by former president Viktor Yanukovich in a case condemned by Western leaders as selective justice.

Known for her trademark braided hairstyle, Tymoshenko lost the 2014 presidential race, but the latest poll by Rating shows her ahead of Poroshenko with 18.7 percent support versus 15.6 percent for the incumbent president.

The next presidential election is slated for March 2019.

While Tymoshenko served as prime minister in 2007-2010, Kiev and Tripoli agreed a number of commercial deals including a plan for Libya to grow wheat on 100,000 hectares of Ukrainian land.

Gaddafi visited Kiev during a tour of ex-Soviet states in 2008, three years before he was overthrown and killed by rebels. He hosted Tymoshenko in a Bedouin-style tent that he had pitched in central Kiev as was his habit on official trips.

REUTERS

President Donald Trump says he could have “a very good relationship” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, even as the United States and many European nations have expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats.

“Getting along with Russia is a good thing,” Trump said Tuesday during a joint press conference with leaders of three Baltic countries most concerned about the potential for “aggression” from Moscow.

“I think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin, and if I did, that would be a great thing. And there’s also a great possibility that that won’t happen. Who knows?”

Trump made the comments as his administration raised the prospect of a White House meeting between the US and Russian presidents.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump and Putin had “discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’” during their most recent phone conversation last month, and that the White House was among “a number of potential venues.”

Trump called Putin on March 20 to congratulate him on his reelection, stoking criticism he is overly warm with the Russian president even as the US intelligence has conduced Russia interfered in the 2016 US election.

During the White House summit on Tuesday, Trump said he was looking to expand business ties with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as their leaders have called on the US to take a tougher stance against Russia.

“The Baltic countries remain a key market for US aircraft, automobiles, machinery and medical equipment, and we welcome increased bilateral trade with all three nations based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity,” he said.

Trump told the foreign leaders that “nobody has been tougher on Russia” than he has been, noting he has pushed for increased military spending and energy production to beat Russia.

“We’re essentially now energy-independent. We’re an exporter of energy. That is not a positive for Russia,” he said.

“We are going to have a military stronger than we’ve ever had before by far,” he added. “That’s not exactly a great thing for Russia.”

The three states, along with the US, moved to impose new sanctions on Moscow in response to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England last month, an attack that Western officials have blamed on the Kremlin.

The UK says the nerve agent Novichok had been used to poison the pair, claiming only Russia had the capability, motive and intent to be behind the attack.

Moscow has vehemently denied any involvement, saying the substance could have originated from the countries studying Novichok, including the UK itself, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

The Trump administration announced plans to expel 60 Russian diplomatic officials it accused of being spies following the nerve agent attack against Skripal.

Despite diplomatic actions by his administration, Trump has not forcefully condemned Putin and Moscow for the incident.

Moscow has also expelled nearly 60 diplomats from different countries in retaliation.

Source: Presstv

For the past three weeks, an encampment of activists from Ambazonia, the English-speaking territory also known as Southern Cameroon, has been holding vigil outside the Nigerian Embassy in South Africa. The  purpose is to demand the immediate release of leaders in their struggle with the French neo-colonial regime in Cameroon, and to shine a light on Nigeria’s betrayal of the Ambazonian people. In January 2018, Nigeria arrested and  handed over several Ambazonian refugees to the Cameroonian regime, the second longest-running dictatorship in the world.

Cameroonian authorities have since announced that among those Nigeria handed to them was Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, regarded by millions of Ambazonians as their political representative in the struggle for their basic human rights. Ambazonia has been under military occupation by Cameroon since 1961, and, all this time, the people have been struggling for basic human rights and dignity. Tensions rose sharply in October 2016 in response to a strike by legal workers to defend the Ambazonian common law–based judicial system from the Cameroonian regime’s attempt to replace it with a French colonial court system.

In response, the Cameroon military used force. They deployed helicopter gunships to shoot live ammunition at protesters, executed hundreds and detained more than a thousand summarily and without charge. In direct response, some factions of Ambazonians have chosen to defend their communities with force. These acts have created a wave of refugees crossing the border to Nigeria in fear for their lives.

The UNHCR had registered 20,291 refugees as of March 8; community leaders on the ground count close to 60,000. Ayuk Tabe and 11 other Ambazonian leaders, who were betrayed by the Nigerian government, had gathered at the Nera Hotel, Abuja to plan a meeting with the UNHCR on the plight of the refugees when they were arrested. Nigeria’s handing over of these activists to Cameroon, clearly done under pressure from France, was a violation of the principle of non-refoulement, a fundamental pillar of international humanitarian law, which forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning them to a country in which they would be in likely danger of persecution. It has drawn rebuke from Amnesty International, the UNHCR, and even the US Department of State. Moreover, it constituted a devastating attack on the survival of the Ambazonian people.

Ayuk Tabe has recently emerged as a unifying figure that commands the respect and confidence of the Ambazonian community. This betrayal on the part of the Nigerian government is not just injurious to the Ambazonian people. In fact it is deeply harmful to Nigeria as well, and should be read as the most overt display yet of France’s calculated conquest of the whole of Africa.

Nigeria has always been the crown jewel of the French project to re-conquer all of Africa. Through a combination of underhandedness, blackmail and influence peddling ,France has meddled in Nigeria affairs since the eve of her independence. When the Biafran war broke out in 1967, France positioned itself as its international champion — serving as the main supplier of weapons and mercenaries to the Biafran army and declaring “Biafra Week” on March 11-17. Yet France declined to formally recognize Biafra — which was what they needed the most in their struggle.

Having blackmailed their way into huge oil concessions from the northern-dominated federal government with their support for Biafra, France then switched sides and betrayed the Biafrans to government. The spoils of this act were demonstrated four years after the defeat of the Biafrans, when a French oil company emerged as the biggest winner in the 1974 issuing of new oil leases by the Nigerian government. Today, some French institutions and operatives play an oversize role in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Observers are not surprised that Nigeria is slowly becoming France’s gendarme in Africa. Evidence of this lies in the disjuncture between Nigeria’s response to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, vs. to Côte d’Ivoire. Nigerian political leadership has never found the courage to criticise electoral fraud in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, two French clientele regimes to Nigeria’s immediate eastern and south-eastern borders which can boast of the world’s longest-running and second longest-running dictatorships in the world. The forcible return of the Ambazonian prisoners, including Ayuk Tabe, is in keeping with this behavior.

French oil interests are the driving factor in the move to squelch the movement for human rights in Ambazonia. Were it to gain the attention it deserves, more than just Ambazonians would raise their voices for their fair share of the profits reaped by the French extraction industry in Africa.

Source: Vanguard Nigeria

Turkey has warned France over bolstering its military presence in Syria, stressing that such a move would amount to an invasion.

“If France takes any steps regarding its military presence in northern Syria, this would be an illegitimate step that would go against international law and in fact, it would be an invasion,” said Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli on Saturday.

“Especially if they intend to support terror group elements or give direct or indirect protection with armed forces, this would be a really calamitous step,” he added.

Canikli’s remarks came in response to a Thursday pledge by French President Emmanuel Macron to further support US-backed Kurdish militants in northern Syria.

Turkey began the so-called Operation Olive Branch in Afrin on January 20 to clear the northern Syrian border of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a US-backed Kurdish militant group which Ankara associates with the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighting for autonomy on Turkish soil.

Macron’s remarks also drew an angry reaction from Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who said Friday that the promise to back the Kurds amounts to support for and legitimization of terrorist groups.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also denounced France’s stance as “completely wrong.”

Source: Presstv