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Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the two-time Libertarian Party presidential candidate, says he’s lost faith in the electoral process and vowed never to run again. He will now focus all his efforts on legalizing marijuana. Govs. Johnson and Weld became the first ticket of any party to feature two governors since the 1948 presidential election and ended up receiving nearly 4.5 million votes nationally, far more than his 2012 popular vote total. While still not a viable electoral force, the 2016 presidential election marked the Libertarian Party’s most successful presidential run to date and the most successful third-party candidacy...

Syrian Accountability Act to Combat Terrorism By Jim Hauser Talon News December 18, 2003WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Last week, President Bush signed into law H.R. 1828, the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003. The legislation calls on the president to impose sanctions on Syria to discourage support for international terrorist groups and the occupation of Lebanon.The bill demands that Syria end support for terrorism; halt the development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) along with medium- and long-range missiles; and withdraw the roughly 20,000 troops it has deployed in Lebanon.It also calls on Syria to "enter into...

Syrians express 'deep anger' at Turkey for war "Why did Turkey do this to us?" Fehim Tastekin reports that many Syrians blame Turkey, once a close ally of Damascus, for the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to United Nations and independent estimates. Tastekin, a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, reports from Damascus that “being a Turk in Syria is a bit difficult nowadays. No one will harass, insult or attack you, for sure, but everyone has a few words to say about Ankara’s transition from friend to foe.” Tastekin writes, “In a cafe...

Return to Aleppo: A squandered legacy Fehim Taştekin January 12, 2017 This is the second in a series of stories from Al-Monitor correspondent Fehim Tastekin, who is traveling in Syria. ALEPPO, Syria — When I finally arrived in Aleppo from Damascus, accompanied by Damascus-based Turkish journalist Hediye Levent, I discovered the Meridien Hotel we'd wanted to stay at was totally booked because of a government meeting. The hotel general manager found us places at Hotel Riga, once one of the best in the city. We had thought it was not operating because of the war. When we reached the hotel,...

John F. Kerry was late to his own party. Staffers, journalists and other officials were gathered in the ornate Benjamin Franklin salon at the State Department on Dec. 14 for early Christmas festivities. But the secretary of State was nowhere to be seen. Kerry was on the telephone to various world leaders, trying to find out about a major diplomatic meeting — from which the United States had been excluded. The gathering, which sought to broker a resolution to the devastating Syrian conflict, took place six days later in Moscow and involved the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey.

Drone footage focuses on the Saint Elias Cathedral in the Al-Jadideh quarter of Aleppo. The church will hold its first Christmas ceremony in four years this coming Sunday. The church is considered to be one of the oldest in the Middle East. It was built in 1873. Throughout the Syrian crisis, the church has been the target of three missile attacks by militants.

Aleppo and the humanitarian crises has dominated international media in the past weeks. News articles with exceedingly dire headlines have increasingly dominated and many heart wrenching images have emerged of Regime brutality. Things, however, came to a head in a recent viral video of a woman called Eva Bartlett, a Canadian Journalist and ‘human rights activist’ speaking about the current situation in Aleppo. Bartlett states that she has been to Syria, including the war torn areas of Aleppo four times (how she managed to do this is soon to be answered) and that in her ‘experience’ the people of Aleppo and...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family visited a convent north of Damascus on Christmas day. It is his first public appearance since his regime forces won back the northern city Aleppo from rebels. These pictures from Syrian state television show Assad meeting nuns and orphans dressed in Santa costumes. The Syrian Army took the last rebel-held enclaves last week, as rebels and civilians were evacuated. This ceremony is the first peaceful Christmas mass in Aleppo’s St Eilas Church since rebels took control of East Aleppo four years ago.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family visited a convent north of Damascus on Christmas day. It is his first public appearance since his regime forces won back the northern city Aleppo from rebels.

Christians in Syria's Aleppo took part in Christmas services after President Bashar al-Assad's forces retook full control of the ruined former economic hub. The Old City's Saint Elias Cathedral, its roof collapsed under rocket fire, hosted its first Christmas mass in five years.

The Russian Defense Ministry says its troops have found mass graves in Aleppo with bodies showing signs of torture and mutilation. In Aleppo, Christians celebrated Christmas for the first time in four years with the country's largest city now under full control of government forces. Christians, one of the largest religious minorities at about 10 percent of Syria's pre-war 23 million-strong population, have tried to stay on the sidelines of the conflict. However, the opposition's increasingly outspoken Islamism has kept many leaning toward Assad's government.

The evacuation of civilians and fighters from the last rebel-held part of Aleppo concluded on Thursday after long delays because of frigid weather, putting all of Syria’s industrial capital back in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces for the first time since 2012. ...Tens of thousands of people have been removed from eastern Aleppo since Dec. 15. Before the last buses left on Thursday, the Red Cross said that 34,000 people had left the city, including 4,000 fighters who had left in their own vehicles the previous night. ...The seizure of all of Aleppo by Mr. Assad and his...

An al-Qaeda linked terror group has claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, it was reported. A statement released by the Syria based al-Nusra front hails the killer, off duty policeman Mevlut Altintas, as a martyr who sought 'revenge for the women, children and elderly killed in Aleppo'. Altintas recited a poem associated with al-Nusra fighters and yelled, 'Don't forget Aleppo', before gunning down Andrei Karlov at the opening of an art exhibition in Ankara.

The perverse behavior by Washington and its European satraps is simply a case of sour grapes. Very sour grapes. They have been proven spectacularly wrong about Syria. The liberation of Aleppo this week exposes the Western governments and media in their unrelenting falsehoods and systematic complicity in the Syrian war. This was never a pro-democracy uprising. It was a Western-backed criminal regime-change operation that was unleashed in March 2011, and which is now staring at ignominious defeat. The blood of up to half a million people and many more maimed is on the hands of American and European governments. It...

Hundreds of residents gathered at Al Azizieh Square in western Aleppo on Tuesday, to watch the Christmas tree lights being turned on, in an attempt to establish some sense of normality in a city that has been a focal point of the Syrian conflict.

Political leaders across the West piously lined up last week to identify the fall of Aleppo as a stain on our collective conscience. The West, they have said, should have done more to stop the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. At a purely humanitarian level, this is obviously true. States can always do more to deliver humanitarian aid to people on the ground. But in a military sense, the notion that the West should have “done more” is fantastical and learns exactly the wrong lesson from this carnival of carnage. If there is a lesson for the West from the...

Whilst MSM is busy spreading jihadist propaganda, this is what's actually happening in Aleppo

A fake video purported to show war ravaged Aleppo days after government forces retook control has led authorities to a group of filmmakers who have been arrested for the ruse in a demolition site in Port Said. Two children an eight-year-old girl, and a 12-year-old boy appeared in the footage. The group confessed to making the video with the intention of distributing it on social media. The filmmaker, his assistants and the parents of two children were detained after officers passing by the site spotted a child covered in what was later revealed to be red paint.

On December 19, Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, made a statement that 14 foreign intelligence officers were remaining inside the eastern part of Aleppo city and disclosed their alleged names and nationalities. Mutaz Oglacan Oglu – Turkey David Scott Winer – USA David Shlomo Aram – Israel Muhamad Tamimi – Qatar Muhamad Ahmad Assabian – Saudi Arabia Abd-el-Menham Fahd al Harij – Saudi Arabia Islam Salam Ezzahran Al Hajlan – Saudi Arabia Ahmed Ben Naoufel Al Darij – Saudi Arabia Muhamad Hassan Al Sabihi – Saudi Arabia Hamad Fahad Al Dousri – Saudi Arabia Amjad Qassem Al Tiraoui...

Russia's ambassador to Turkey has been assassinated allegedly in retaliation for the crisis in Aleppo. The gunman reportedly said in Turkish "We die in Aleppo, you die here" before opening fire and injuring Ambassador Andrei Karlov.