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Our thanks to Ron Paul for being one of the less than 1% of American officials (sadly, now retired) to uphold the Constitution and international law. I agree 100% with Ron’s assessment of the despicable US hypocrisy described in this article below. I differ on only one minor point. The Deep State, referred to hereinbelow, has been effectively redefined by the Trump administration and Trump’s followers to mean only the part of the US Establishment that opposes Trump and seeks to overthrow his administration. For this reason, I no longer use the term Deep State, instead referring to the US Establishment. That term is less likely to suggest that Trump is not part of it. It is confusing to speak of the Deep State now because for millions of loyal Trump fans, this Deep State is only the sector of the Establishment that opposes Trump, and as Ron points out, Trump is very much a part of this body. So like the term “fake news,” the Trump people have rewritten a definition. Fake news was once understood as news that was either concocted in whole or distorted to support a false narrative, generally a government narrative. It could have been Russian propaganda, Chinese propaganda, US propaganda or whatever. But according to the new Trumpian definition, the term “fake news” has come to mean only news as disseminated in the liberal media. But nowadays false news is also to be found abundantly in so-called “conservative” media (“conservative” has also be redefined beyond recognition) and in Trump’s own speeches, for example, when he maintains that a surge in stock prices – known to economists nowadays as a dangerous stock bubble – is a sign of a healthy economy. We Westerners must be ever vigilant and must learn (or relearn) how to think for ourselves, particularly now that millions of us have come to believe in the current administration as a gift of the Almighty and not a phenomenon created by fallible mortals. I strongly recommend avoiding consumption of US and Western msm completely (they are toxic) or at least just taking them with a grain of salt, and instead focussing on foreign media outside the realm of US influence, such as Russian RT, TASS and Sputnik, Chinese media such as Xinhua, Global Times, Iranian media such as Tehran Times, and even Israeli media such as Haaretz (pay to read but many articles are free of charge). For news on the Syrian war, I recommend Al Masdar and Southfront. http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/february/24/trump-s-betrayal-of-julian-assange/ TRUMP’S BETRAYAL OF JULIAN ASSANGE written by ron paul february 24, 2020 One thing we’ve learned from the Trump Presidency is that the “deep state” is not just some crazy conspiracy theory. For the past three years we’ve seen that deep state launch plot after plot to overturn the election. It all started with former CIA director John Brennan’s phony “Intelligence Assessment” of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. It was claimed that all 17 US intelligence agencies agreed that Putin put Trump in office, but we found out later that the report was cooked up by a handful of Brennan’s hand-picked agents. Donald Trump upset the Washington apple cart as presidential candidate and in so doing he set elements of the deep state in motion against him. One of the things candidate Donald Trump did to paint a deep state target on his back was his repeated praise of Wikileaks, the pro-transparency media organization headed up by Australian journalist Julian Assange. More than 100 times candidate Trump said “I love Wikileaks” on the campaign trail. Trump loved it when Wikileaks exposed the criminality of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, as it cheated to deprive Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Party nomination. Wikileaks’ release of the DNC emails exposed the deep corruption at the heart of US politics, and as a candidate Trump loved the transparency. Then Trump got elected. The real tragedy of the Trump presidency is nowhere better demonstrated than in Trump’s 180 degree turn away from Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. “I know nothing about Wikileaks,” he said as president. “It’s really not my thing.” US pressure and bribes to the Ecuadorian government ended Assange’s asylum and his seven years in a room at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. After his dramatic arrest by London's Metropolitan Police last April, he has been effectively tortured in British jails at the behest of the US deep state. Today, Monday the 24th of February, Assange faces an extradition hearing in a UK courthouse. The Trump Administration – led by a man who praised Assange’s work – seeks a show trial of Assange worthy of the worst of the Soviet era. The US is seeking a 175 year prison sentence. The Trump Administration argues that the Australian Assange should be tried and convicted of espionage against a country of which he is not a citizen. At the same time the Trump Administration argues that the First Amendment does not apply to Assange because he is not an American citizen! So Assange is subject to US law when it comes to publishing information embarrassing to the US deep state but he is not subject to the law of the land – the US Constitution – which protects all journalists and is the backbone of our system of government. It is ironic that a President Trump who has been victim of so much deep state meddling has done the deep state’s bidding when it comes to Assange and Wikileaks. President Trump should pre-empt the inevitable US show trial of Assange by granting the journalist blanket pardon under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The deep state Trump is serving by persecuting Assange is the same deep state that continues to plot Trump’s own ouster. Free Assange! Syrian war news Al Masdar reports: Russia uses electronic warfare against Turkish drones in Syria: media By News Desk -2020-03-032 BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:00 P.M.) – The Russian military is using electronic warfare to disrupt Turkey’s drone strikes on the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions in the northwestern part of the country, the Russian publication Avia.Pro reported on Tuesday. According to Avia.Pro, at least two Turkish shock drones were lost in Syria after the Russian military activated its electronic warfare systems. “Over the past 72 hours, Turkey has lost at least two attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in Syrian airspace that attempted to strike at the positions of the Syrian Army,” Avia.Pro said. “As it became known, when entering the airspace of Syria, the drones were subjected to powerful electronic impact from the south-west direction, which resulted in Turkey losing control over them – one drone crashed in the Turkish province of Hatay, and the second in the vicinity of the city of Saraqib,” they continued. The Avia.Pro report presented images showing where the Turkish drone’s lost their GPS signal, resulting in their interception by the Russian military. “At the moment, it remains unknown whether deliberate action was carried out on drones or exclusively jamming the GPS signal, but Turkey was forced to reduce the use of its drones to a minimum, which had already led to the restoration of at least 7 settlements, including the large and strategically important city of Saraqib,” they added. Al Masdar news: Syrian Army shoots down 3rd Turkish drone in northwest Syria By News Desk - 2020-03-03 The Syrian Arab Army has now shot down two Turkish drones in Idlib and one in the [Idlib] Governorate BEIRUT, LEBANON (6:40 P.M.) – For the third time in the last 12 hours, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has shot down a Turkish armed drone over the northwestern region of Syria. According to the latest report from the Idlib Governorate, the Syrian air defenses identified a Turkish drone approaching their positions, resulting in the downing of the unmanned aerial vehicle UAV). https://southfront.org/syrian-armed-forces-teach-2nd-strongest-nato-army-painful-lesson-in-idlib/
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