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White House Exempts Itself From Civilian Casuality Policy Months After Blasting Israel

October 2, 2014

White House Exempts Itself From Civilian Casuality Policy Months After Blasting Israel10.1.2014NewsTruth Revolt

via White House Exempts Itself From Civilian Casuality Policy Months After Blasting Israel | Truth Revolt.

 

Months after the United States’ State Department blasted Israel for “indefensible” civilian deaths, the White House has exempted itself from its own standard regarding acceptable conduct with regard to civilian casualties. Writes Yahoo News:

The White House has acknowledged for the first time that strict standards President Obama imposed last year to prevent civilian deaths from U.S. drone strikes will not apply to U.S. military operations in Syria and Iraq.

A White House statement to Yahoo News confirming the looser policy came in response to questions about reports that as many as a dozen civilians, including women and young children, were killed when a Tomahawk missile struck the village of Kafr Daryan in Syria’s Idlib province on the morning of Sept. 23.

The village has been described by Syrian rebel commanders as a reported stronghold of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front where U.S officials believed members of the so-called Khorasan group were plotting attacks against international aircraft.

But at a briefing for members and staffers of the House Foreign Affairs Committee late last week, Syrian rebel commanders described women and children being hauled from the rubble after an errant cruise missile destroyed a home for displaced civilians. Images of badly injured children also appeared on YouTube, helping to fuel anti-U.S. protests in a number of Syrian villages last week.

“The laws of armed conflict prohibit the deliberate targeting of civilian areas and require armed forces to take precautions to prevent inadvertent civilian deaths as much as possible,” wrote Yahoo News. “But one former Obama administration official said the new White House statement raises questions about how the U.S. intends to proceed in the conflict in Syria and Iraq, and under what legal authorities.”

“They seem to be creating this grey zone” for the conflict, said Harold Koh, who served as the State Department’s top lawyer during President Obama’s first term according to Yahoo News. “If we’re not applying the strict rules [to prevent civilian casualties] to Syria and Iraq, then they are of relatively limited value.”

“Of course it’s OK. It’s always OK when the Obama administration does it,” wrote Twitchy.

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Deep Inside the Battle for Syria’s Most Important City

October 2, 2014

Deep Inside the Battle for Syria’s Most Important City

via Deep Inside the Battle for Syria’s Most Important City | Washington Free Beacon.

BY:
October 1, 2014 12:59 pm

The city of Aleppo is a key battleground in the war for Syria. Forces from Bashar al-Assad’s regime, ISIL, and the Islamic Front have all contested Aleppo.

Vice News was able to spend two weeks with fighters from the Islamic Front to get an in depth view of how fighting in the city is going.

The hour-long report shows Vice News reporter Aris Roussinos walking the front lines of the fight, dodging gunfire, interviewing Islamic Front leaders, witnessing medical care for gun shot victims, and touring the wreckage of the bombed-out city.

Islamic Front fighters have complained that the international community has not supported them in their fight. Several fighters in the video said that the group is moderate. However, the United States has pressured the group’s supporters to cut off supplies because of their extremist views.

In fact, Roussinos explores Sharia courts set up by the Islamic Front which bear a striking resemblance to those set up by ISIL. The judges he interviews say that the group’s goal is to set up an islamic state. They plan to enforce Sharia law across Syria if they are victorious.

As civilians stuck in the middle of the fighting suffer in makeshift hospitals, Islamic Front fighters threaten that if they do not receive aid from the west they will target them if and when they defeat Assad.

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ADL slams Iranian ‘hatefest’ promoting anti-Semitism

October 2, 2014

ADL slams Iranian ‘hatefest’ promoting anti-Semitism.

The conference opened with the Ayatollah’s adviser saying “American officials are puppets of the Zionist lobby who are taking advantage of American ignorance.”

Tehran, Iran

The New Horizons Conference in Tehran, Iran. (photo credit:screenshot)

A conference denying the Holocaust and bashing Israel will take place this year in Tehran with a number of foreign guests, despite its cancellation by the Iranian government in 2013.

The 2nd New Horizon Conference bills itself as a “conference of independent thinkers & film makers” while focusing on topics such as the “similarities [between] Nazism and Zionism, America and the Zionist crimes in the world, Hollywood and the Israel lobby … .”

“A disturbing new element in this anti-Jewish gathering is the appearance on the guest list of a few high-visibility US anti-war and anti-Israel activists who claim their positions are not motivated by anti-Semitism,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

Mohsen Ghomi, official advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, opened the conference saying “American officials are puppets of the Zionist lobby who are taking advantage of American ignorance.”

“A disturbing new element in this anti-Jewish gathering is the appearance on the guest list of a few high-visibility US antiwar and anti-Israel activists who claim their positions are not motivated by anti-Semitism,” said Foxman

The three-day event is taking place as part of the 13th International Resistance Film Festival, which will present films on topics as varied as ‘A revealing image of the US and Zionism crimes in the world’, ‘Regional and worldwide spread of the Islamic Awakening’, ‘A world free of terrorism and nuclear weapons’, ‘The role of Zionism and Wahhabism in desecration of Muslim beliefs and Prophet.’

Among the people attending what is being called a hatefest are Medea Benjamin, the co-founder anti-war organization CODEPINK, Alison Weir, the director of two American anti-Israel organizations, Mark Siljander, a former US representative from Michigan found guilty of ties to terror funding groups and anti-Semitic French “comedian” Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.

One of those attending the conference was Wayne Madsen, described by the government-run Iranian news source Press TV as an “American investigative journalist,” who said “Zionists” are controlling the American government, hearkening back to a long-held anti-Semitic tropes.

Last year, Iran’s foreign ministry cancelled the New Horizon Conference, in a move to demonstrate that the country is veering toward a new diplomatic direction under the leadership of new President Hassan Rouhani. It is unclear why the Iranian government decided to allow the conference to proceed this year.

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