Gingrich: Prince Turki al-Faisal appearance in the meeting of NCRI in Paris is 'like an earthquake

 Saudis on the side of the Free Iranians is a real step towards overthrowing the Iranian Mullahs

Iran has 'gone from bad to worse' under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tells News max TV that he would advise any Republican president to tear up the nuclear agreement with Tehran on 'the first day' in the White House.
'I'd advise tearing it up the first day — and I'd advise establishing a policy to actively work covertly to overthrow the dictatorship,' Gingrich, 73, who was vetted last week as a possible vice presidential choice of Donald Trump, told 'Newsmax Prime' host J.D. Hayworth in an exclusive interview from Paris.
'We will never be safe in the Middle East as long as the Iranian dictatorship is in power.'
Gingrich, who was speaker from 1995 to 1999, was in Paris over the weekend for a meeting sponsored by the National Council for Resistance in Iran, which brought together dissidents, activists living in exile from Iran and other supporters from around the world.
'I've been involved since all the way back when I was in Congress, because I felt strongly that the Free Iran movement was being discriminated against by the U.S. State Department to appease the dictatorship in Tehran,' he told Hayworth.
Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, a member of the royal family who has long slammed the Obama administration's policies in the Middle East, told about 100,000 delegates to the meeting that the Iranian government should be overthrown.

 

Gingrich described his appearance to Hayworth as 'like an earthquake.'
'To have the Saudis on the side of the Free Iranians is a real signal of how much the Saudis are afraid of the dictatorship and is a real step towards overthrowing the dictatorship,' he said. 'So, it’s an exciting day to be here.'

Turkish ship carrying aid for Gaza arrived in Israel Sunday

A Turkish cargo ship carrying  humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza

Turkey's state-run Anadolu (news) agency said the vessel, Lady Leyla, arrived at the Israeli port in Ashdod on Sunday, 35 hours after leaving the Turkish port city of Mersin.
The Panama-flagged ship was carrying 11,000 tonnes of supplies including food packages, flour, rice, sugar and toys, the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
'The ship is docking these very moments,' a spokesman for the Ashdod Port, Yigal Ben Zikry, said earlier on Sunday.
Its contents were to be unloaded, inspected and sent on to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, hit by three wars with Israel since 2008 and under an Israeli blockade.
The aid delivery marks a return to normalized relations between Turkey and Israel, which were ruptured in 2010.
Aid for the 1.9 million Palestinians in the poverty stricken enclave is part of a reconciliation deal signed between Turkey and Israel last week.
Months of negotiations between the two sides led to the agreement, which included compensation for the victims of the Israeli raid.
Tel Aviv will contribute $20 million (18 million euros) to a victim's fund for those killed in the so-called Mavi Marmara affair - the name of the ship that Israeli forces raided.
In return, Ankara will drop criminal charges against the Israeli soldiers involved in the raid.
Israel rejected Turkey's main demand - easy access to the Gaza strip - but Israel has agreed to allow aid shipments to Hamas-run Gaza, as long as they first pass through the Ashdod port for inspection.
Turkey will also be allowed to build a hospital, power plant and water desalinization plant in Gaza.
Sunday's delivery comes before the start of one of Islam's major holidays - Eid al-Fitr.

The world cannot let Aleppo be slaughtered before our eyes

The slaughter of Aleppo is underway

The slaughter of Aleppo is underway. At least 212 civilians have been killed, including at least 57 children, since April 18. The bloodshed is certain to increase in the coming weeks as the regime and allied forces launch a major offensive to attempt to retake rebel-held territory in the city. The past several days have proved utterly brutal in Aleppo and a number of videos show footage of all too familiar scenes: Dust covered babies and tiny children being pulled from rubble, horrifically mangled bodies, and devastated civilian infrastructure. In one especially barbaric attack, the Assad regime intentionally targeted Al Quds hospital, massacring at least 55 people. Among the dead at the Doctors without Borders-supported facility was one of Aleppo’s very last pediatricians. Meanwhile, reports indicated rebels have intensely shelled government-held areas of the city, killing at least 71.

As the Assad regime and its allied forces continue carrying out war crimes with impunity, the international community must reflect on how history will look back at this period of bloodshed. Amid the devastating surge in violence, the United States and Russia brokered a nebulous “regime of calm,” agreement, which calls for a cessation of fighting in areas of Damascus and Latakia for 24 and 72 hours, respectively. Excluding Aleppo from the agreement - where a halt in fighting is most desperately needed – is a tragic mistake.

Extermination

The past several days in Aleppo have further demonstrated a particularly poignant truth: Syria is perhaps one of the most well-tracked conflicts in history, with shaky camera footage emerging only minutes after an airstrike and consistent real time coverage of rebel and regime battles. Yet, despite the overwhelming amount of information made available almost instantly about war crime after war crime, the atrocities have continued. The US has waged a justified war against ISIS but the chief orchestrator of the entire conflict remains untouched; the war in Syria will never end so long as the perpetrator of the worst violence enjoys impunity for his crimes. Just months ago in February, the United Nations indicated that the Assad regime is guilty of carrying out the war crime of “extermination” against his own people. A government guilty of such a campaign cannot be dealt with in civil negotiations.

Aleppo cannot be the stage for the latest unforgiveable crimes against humanity that we watch unfold like helpless spectators. This devastating conflict has been punctuated by multiple opportunities for the US to more broadly intervene; they have not been seized. As the slaughter of Aleppo begins, the impetus for the US to act is nearly as strong as it was after Assad massacred his own people in the worst chemical weapon attack since Halabja. With the help of Turkey and Arab allies, the US should implement a No-Fly Zone (NFZ) and ensure the protection of Syrians by force. The regime and Russia cannot continue dictating the role of the US in Syria while at the same time carrying out horrific attacks against civilians.

Aleppo cannot be the stage for the latest unforgivable crimes against humanity that we watch unfold like helpless spectators
Brooklyn Middleton

When the very last airstrike is launched and the last barrel bomb dropped, no party can look back and claim they were ignorant of what exactly the situation on the ground in Syria was during its hellish war. No one can deny that the world knew thousands of Syrians died from torture at the hands of government forces. Summaries of the conflict will note that regime defector Ceaser smuggled 55,000 photographs into the west, showing the world images of detainees whose eyes had been gouged out and whose rib cages and hip bones appeared to be on the verge of breaking through their pale and yellowed skin. “History counts its skeletons in round numbers. A thousand and one remains a thousand, as though the one had never existed,” wrote Wislawa Szymborska in her devastating poem “Hunger Camp At Jaslo.” In Syria, the dead that haven’t been disappeared continue to be counted daily but only after the war will the real death toll come to be known.

Until the international community acts to protect Syrian civilians, Aleppo will continue burning. And more photos of dust covered tiny bodies will surface. And the world can look forward to one day counting more and more skeletons in round numbers.

Congress Should Reject Iran Deal

The following is an article posted by Kim R. Holmes in the Trend website on August 22, 2015.

You’ve heard the argument. If Congress turns down the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran will rush to get a nuclear bomb within two to three months. Our only alternative then is war.
But what about Congress voting “no” and adjusting the terms of the agreement?
Robert Satloff, the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, recently made such a proposal. He argues that congressional disapproval would provide time to correct some of the agreement’s flaws. Most experts believe that it would take until spring 2016 at the earliest for Iran to comply with the terms of the agreement. Since none of the U.S. sanctions will be suspended by then, there would still be time for the U.S. to take remedial measures to strengthen the deal.
Among these could be reaching understandings with the European partners “on the appropriate penalties to be imposed for a broad spectrum of Iranian violations.” Other actions could include a clearer declaratory policy that military force will not be taken off the table and ramping up tougher sanctions against Tehran’s terrorist and other non-nuclear activities that destabilize the region.
Satloff’s alternative is a noble effort to save an obviously weak deal. It recognizes a major flaw in the agreement: that the terms of re-imposing “snapback” sanctions are so onerous that they will likely never be enforced. It also points to a negotiating principle that the Obama administration has tried to obscure: strong sanctions are what forced whatever concessions Iran made. Keeping or strengthening sanctions enhances America’s bargaining leverage. Even if Congress disapproves the deal, that leverage will remain.
This last point is key. We should remember that no sanctions relief kicks in from anybody—including the United Nations and the Europeans—until the IAEA certifies that Iran has complied with its initial commitments under the agreement. If Tehran responds to a congressional “no” vote by thumbing its nose at everybody, it will only be back where it started, which is not where it wants to be. In fact, it could face even stronger sanctions (or worse) from the U.S. if it should hit the accelerator on its nuclear program.
Satloff’s idea is a good start. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go far enough. The only way to get Iran to give up its nuclear program short of war is to force it to decide between retaining its nuclear weapons potential and having sanctions completely lifted. Neither Satloff’s option nor Obama’s deal forces that choice....more