Syria and Turkey are on the Brink of All-out War, Threatens US-Russian Involvement

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The cross-border bombardments that Restoring Liberty has been reporting on have now become daily occurrences. Some pundits believe that the conflict could erupt into a regional war, and worse. Here’s one report from the front lines:

If anyone believed that Syria’s bloodshed would stay inside the country’s borders, the events of the last week should have put them right. I’m in southern Turkey, near the frontier with Syria, and this area feels like the new front line of the battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Convoys of Turkish army vehicles ply the roads down to the border and, quietly, civilians are trickling away to safer areas.

The reason is simple: cross-border artillery and mortar bombardments have become daily events. Last Friday, I went to the scene of the bloodiest incident so far, when a Syrian mortar bomb landed outside a family home in the Turkish town of Akçakale. By malign chance, a mother, her six daughters and a female relative happened to be outside, making dinner under an olive tree, when the weapon exploded beside them. They were, quite simply, cut to pieces. When I arrived, a severed human finger, covered in flies, was still lying on the ground. Three of the girls survived with critical injuries; the mother, three daughters and the visiting relative were all killed.

Additionally, the increasingly Islamic Turkey, a NATO member country that the United States is obligated to defend by treaty, forced down a Russian plane yesterday and is at risk of direct conflict with Russia:

Adding to strains with Turkey over the conflict in Syria, Russia demanded an explanation on Thursday after Turkish warplanes forced a Syrian passenger plane flying from Moscow to Damascus to land in Ankara on suspicion of carrying military cargo.

The episode on Wednesday also marked a sharp escalation of Turkey’s confrontation with Syria as authorities in Ankara ordered Turkish civilian airplanes to avoid Syria’s airspace and warned of increasingly forceful responses if Syrian artillery gunners keep lobbing shells across the border.

The forced landing exposed new fissures of dispute as the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation from Turkey, and other officials in Moscow denied that there were weapons or other military supplies on board the plane, which was carrying some Russian passengers.

Moscow’s complaints brought a quick response from Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who was quoted by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency as saying “materials that infringed international regulations” had been confiscated when Turkish officials searched the aircraft.

Russia and Turkey are already at odds over the Syrian crisis with Ankara joining Western and many Arab nations in support of insurgents seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad while Moscow has consistently shielded Mr. Assad, its main regional ally. Russia is Syria’s main arms supplier.

In Surprise Move, Standard & Poor’s Cuts Spain’s Debt Rating to One Step Beyond Junk Status

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Spain’s debt rating was cut to one level above junk by Standard & Poor’s, which cited euro-region peers’ backtracking on a pledge to severe the link between the sovereign and its banks as it considers a second bailout.

The country was lowered two levels to BBB- from BBB+, New York-based S&P said in a statement yesterday. S&P assigned a negative outlook to the nation’s long-term rating and lowered the short-term sovereign level to A-3 from A-2.

The downgrade comes after Spain announced a fifth austerity package in less than a year and published details about stress tests of its banks. Creditworthiness concerns have grown since the government requested as much as 100 billion euros ($129 billion) in European Union aid in June to shore up its lenders and amid signals that the deficit target is in jeopardy.

S&P said the government’s action will probably be constrained by “a policy-setting framework among the euro-zone governments that still lacks predictability.” Recent statements on the European Stability Mechanism’s involvement in bank recapitalizations put into question the mutualization of loans to Spanish banks among euro-region nations, it said.

That possibility was a key factor in S&P’s decision to affirm ratings on Spain on Aug. 1 as it would enable Spanish net general government debt to remain under 80 percent of gross domestic product beyond 2015, it said.

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Time to Rise Up Again: United Nations Considering International “SOPA” to Regulate, Tax Internet

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In January, several million Americans contacted Congress to stop passage of two bills that would have destroyed Internet freedom and stifled innovation. The twin bills, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), were meant to counter Internet piracy, a very real problem. But they both used a sledgehammer when a scalpel was necessary. The legislation would have done more than block piracy – they would have hurt Internet users’ ability to get content from their favorite websites and prevented new websites from being created.

The world needs a similar citizen uprising to stop another well-meaning but harmful attack on the ability of Internet users to access websites outside their home countries. A United Nations body, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), will be meeting in December in Dubai to consider at least two proposals which would dramatically affect the ability of Internet users to get the content they want to receive over the Internet.

One proposal would require that a website owner or service provider pay a fee as a “sending party” to the government of any country for the country’s citizens to view the content. This would mean that popular websites like Khan Academy or BBC World would not be available to people outside their native countries unless the website or service provider paid a fee to the user’s country. This would hurt people in developing countries who hunger for access to quality news and education.

The countries that are advocating for this were getting money for international phone calls and have seen that revenue fall off. They see foreign website owners and service providers as having cash to fill the gap in declining long distance telephone revenue. They say they need this money to pay for their broadband infrastructure. But there are other proven ways to encourage quick broadband adoption, including liberalizing market access, encouraging broadband competition, providing spectrum awards and insisting on transparency of ownership of awardees of government telecommunications contracts.

Another proposal up for vote at the ITU meeting would allow governments or some type of multi-government body to use “security” or other justifications to create new rules to regulate the Internet.

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NYC Police Chief: Iran May Target our City

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New York City’s large Jewish population can make it a potential target for an Iranian-sponsored attack, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday.

New York City’s police chief, Ray Kelly, warned that a possible conflict between Iran and Israel is a particular area of concern, given New York City’s large Jewish population, the New York Post newspaper quoted him as saying during an anti-terror conference called NYPD SHIELD.

While New York is a melting pot city, its metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel.

“We’ve been concerned about Iran for a while, and I think the history of those events throughout the world since January give us cause for concern,” Kelly added.

Another NYPD official, Lt. Kevin Yorke of the Intelligence Division, warned of a potential retaliation attack on the city by Iran and its staunch group ally, Hezbollah.

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North Korea Warns that Mainland US Now Within Range of its Missiles

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North Korea today warned that mainland America is now within range of its missiles as it accused the U.S. of conspiring with South Korea.

It comes after Seoul announced that it has reached a deal with Washington allowing it to nearly triple the range of its missiles to better cope with North Korean nuclear threats.

North Korea claims the move proves that the allies are plotting to invade the country – calling the deal a ‘product of another conspiracy of the master and the stooge’ to ‘ignite a war’ against the North.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a spokesman at the powerful National Defence Commission said the North would bolster its military preparedness.

He said: ‘We do not hide… the strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only the bases of the puppet forces and the US imperialist aggression forces’ bases in the inviolable land of Korea but also Japan, Guam and the US mainland.’

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Overwhelming Numbers of Conservative British Oppose Gay Marriage

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British Prime Minister David Cameron should drop his proposals to redefine marriage, according to a poll of his grassroots Conservative Party members.

The ComRes poll was commissioned by the Coalition for Marriage and found that a massive 71 percent of Conservative constituency chairmen believe Cameron should abandon his aggressive push to amend the definition of marriage of between one man and one woman.

The poll has also found that 47 percent of those polled believed that Cameron’s liberal stance on gay marriage had come at a cost to the party.

Furthermore, more than 70 percent believed that Cameron’s push for same sex marriage regardless of what others felt had damaged the prime minister’s standing in the party. Only 11 percent believed that his liberal agenda had enhanced his reputation within the party.

When it came to the considering the affect on the electorate, six in 10 of those polled believed that legalizing gay marriage would cost the Conservative Party votes. In comparison only four percent believed that a push for gay marriage would attract more voters.

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75% of World’s Population Now Lacks Religious Freedom

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A new study highlights the growing global trend of religious restrictions, whether by means of government action or social trends- limiting regulations are currently affecting three out of every four individuals.

The study, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, is titled “Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion” and showed that the percentage of the world’s population that was affected by restrictions on religion increased to 75 percent. That’s up from 70 percent the previous year.

What is equally disturbing is the rise of various countries around the globe that have enacted stricter laws governing the observances of practices of faith. The study found that the percentage of countries who adopted such measures increased from 31 percent to 37 percent.

The study lists some government restrictions which include laws against “proselytism” or “blasphemy.” It also includes laws limiting some countries citizens’ choice of religious materials, such as Uzbekistan, which only recognizes religious materials produced by the state.

Social restrictions, on the other hand are not controlled by the state and can include ostracism, mob action, or other community-based action in response to the exercise of faith. These specific social occurrences are often able to manifest due to the inaction of local authorities.

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Iran Will Have Enough Weapons-Grade Uranium for Nuke Within Two to Four Months

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Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to arm a nuclear bomb within two to four months but would still face serious “engineering challenges” – and much longer delays – before it succeeds in making the other components needed for a functioning warhead, a respected U.S. think tank said Monday.

While Iran denies any interest in possessing nuclear arms, the international community fears it may turn its peaceful uranium enrichment program toward weapons making – a concern that is growing as Tehran expands the number of machines it uses to enrich its stockpile of enriched uranium. As those fears grow, so does concern that Israel could carry out its threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before that nation reaches the bomb-making threshold.

In a strident call for an internationally drawn “red line” on what he said is Iran’s move toward nuclear arms, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sept. 28 that the world has until next summer at the latest to stop Tehran before it can build an atomic bomb. Flashing a diagram of a cartoon-like bomb before the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu said Iran is ready to move to the “final stage” of making such a weapon by then.

For now, U.S. military and intelligence officials say they don’t believe Iran’s leadership has made the decision to build a bomb, while also warning that the country is moving closer to the ability to do so.

Read more from this story HERE Photo credit: futureatlas.com.

Lesson to the US: Social Welfare Costs Rapidly Sinking Europe

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At the British Conservative Party conference, Chancellor George Osborne unveiled an initiative to jump start the nation’s economy. He also targeted welfare and the problem it is creating for the western world.

Calling handouts bloated, unfair and sometimes corrupt, Osborne suggested they are simply unaffordable. He believes they are crushing Europe’s advanced economies.

The UK Telegraph reported that his speech to the Conservative Party was likely well received by the British who show “a high degree of public support for further cuts in welfare spending. Where once the Tories were regarded as cruel and heartless for wanting to slash benefits, it now seems that they can’t be tough enough. Politically, Osborne is therefore pushing at an open door when he says this is not just about saving money – it’s about fairness and enterprise.”

Osbornes’ attack on welfare took a populist tone:

How can we justify the incomes of those out of work rising faster than the incomes of those in work, he asks, or giving flats to young people who have never worked when working people twice their age still have to live with their parents because they cannot afford a separate home?

More emotively still, he asked how it was possible to justify a system where people in work have to consider the costs of having another child, while those who are out of work don’t. By raising these questions, Osborne gives voice to a strongly populist message, but he also speaks to an underlying, economic imperative – advanced economies are long past the stage of being able to afford such largesse.

But welfare is only part of Britain’s problem. It is also facing – along with the rest of Europe – a potential meltdown from pensions and healthcare costs. The Telegraph points out that “these forecasts point to destruction of the very foundations of the European social market economy.”

The European socialistic model has failed miserably. The United States should run far, far away from this dead-end model of government, embraced by Obama.

Another Nail in Obama’s Benghazi Coffin: Ambassador Stevens Himself Wanted More Security

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U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens wanted a Security Support Team, made up of 16 special operations soldiers, to stay with him in Libya after their deployment was scheduled to end in August, the commander of that security team told ABC News.

The embassy staff’s “first choice was for us to stay,” Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, 55, told ABC News in an interview. “That would have been the choice of the embassy people in Tripoli.”

But a senior State Department official told ABC News that the embassy’s Regional Security Officer never specifically requested that the SST’s tour be extended past August, and the official maintained there was no net loss of security personnel. The Regional Security Officer “asked for a number of U.S. shooters because of the pending SST redeployment and he was at that number,” said the senior State Department official, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing internal investigation.

The State Department issued a statement Monday, saying, “The SST was enlisted to support the re-opening of Embassy Tripoli, to help ensure we had the security necessary as our diplomatic presence grew. They were based in Tripoli and operated almost exclusively there. When their rotation in Libya ended, Diplomatic Security Special Agents were deployed and maintained a constant level of security capability. So their departure had no impact whatsoever on the total number of fully trained American security personnel in Libya generally, or in Benghazi specifically.”

The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli had already asked for – and received – an extension of the SST earlier in the year. A February draft request for a 120-day extension, obtained by ABC News, stated that the team is “an integral part of our mobile and fixed site security functions,” augmenting the security escort work done by the Mobile Security Detachment, protecting the embassy, training local guards, serving as a Quick Reaction Force, providing “vital medical, communications, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), as well as, command and control enablers that are critical to post’s security effort.”

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