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Last Thursday, Malaysian Airlines Fight 17 was shot down, allegedly by the Donetsk People's Republic, a pro-Russian separatist group which currently controls much of eastern Ukraine. U.S. intelligence believes that Russia provided the separatists with missiles. Yet, even as evidence mounts implicating Russia in the MH17 shooting, no new economic sanctions have been issued. Instead, the global community is going after Russia's role as the host of the 2018 World Cup. Peter Beuth, interior minister of the German state of Hesse, has said, "If Putin doesn’t actively cooperate on clearing up the plane crash, the soccer World Cup in Russia...

FULL TITLE: Ted Cruz: The facts suggest President Obama has just used the FAA to launch an ECONOMIC BOYCOTT on Israel…//// Sen. Ted Cruz ripped the president today for using a federal agency, the FAA, to launch an economic boycott on Israel in order to force them to comply with his demands. He pointed out that this economic boycott aids Hamas while simultaneously hurting Israel. What Cruz is calling for is the Obama administration to answer the following questions: Was this decision a political decision driven by the White House? If the FAA’s decision was based on airline safety, why...

Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated. Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians. "These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes. "Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated." According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques...

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved "disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks", including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favor, 1 against (the United States) with 17...

Qatar hosts three major US military bases on its territory. And it is becoming one of the most important clients for US military contractors. Earlier this year Qatar signed an $11.4 billion dollar arms agreement with the US. At the same time, according to the Calacalist report, Qatar is the major bankroller of ISIS and al Nusra in Syria and Iraq. It gives $50 million a month to jihadists in Libya. It gives Hamas $100m. in annual aid. And in the past two years Doha has provided Hamas with an additional $620m. dollars, including $250m. it transferred to Hamas leader...

Leadership: Just three days after President Obama delivered his "get tough" speech on Ukraine aimed squarely at Vladimir Putin, Russia's president has responded — not with words, but deeds. Obama has been lauded for his speech on Monday regarding Russia's role in downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 people. "Russia has extraordinary influence over these (Russian) separatists," the commander-in-chief said sternly. "No one denies that. Russia has urged them on. Russia has trained them. We know that Russia has armed them with military equipment and weapons, including anti-aircraft weapons. Key separatist leaders are Russian citizens." Sounds like he was...

Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands, and all the explaining in the world cannot remove the stain or restore whatever lingering respect he may have enjoyed outside his own tarnished sphere of influence. There’s no other reasonable conclusion, given the available evidence about Russia’s role in the horrible shooting down of that Malaysian airliner over Ukraine late last week. The Russian leader has tried to persuade critics that Ukraine bears responsibility because the missile that destroyed the airliner was fired from what is technically Ukrainian soil. That won’t fly, although it may find traction with the Russian people whose...

Vladimir Putin just showed the world exactly what he thinks of the President of the United State and NATO allies calls for him to rein in the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Less than a week after rebels took down a Malaysian passenger plane carrying nearly 300 civilians, the militants loyal to Moscow are not laying low. “Two Ukrainian fighter jets were shot down Wednesday in the eastern regions of the country that are controlled by Russian-backed separatists, according to Ukraine’s defense ministry,” USA Today reported on Wednesday. It was the first reported shoot down of a plane over eastern Ukraine...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughter is living with a Dutch boyfriend in the Netherlands as the country reels from last week’s jetliner missile attack by Ukrainian rebels with Russian-supplied weapons, according to reports Wednesday. Outrage over Maria Putin’s presence in the grief-stricken country — which lost 193 citizens aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 — is fueling calls for her deportation, The Guardian reported. Ukrainians living in the Netherlands are also planning a protest outside Maria’s apartment in the wealthy suburb of Voorschoten, outside The Hague, according to De Telegraaf newspaper. Pieter Broertjes, mayor of the city of Hilversum, demanded the...

The most important thing for European ministers to remember during this crisis is how little they actually have to fear from Mr Putin – for Russia needs the West far more than the West needs Russia. Indeed, there is every possibility that denying Moscow access to the global capital markets, which is the strategy at the heart of Washington’s latest sanctions initiative, could ultimately result in Mr Putin’s downfall. For a start, thanks to the mismanagement and corruption that have dogged Russia’s economy since Mr Putin came to power, the country has nothing much else to offer other than its...

A Russian television channel said on Wednesday it had lost contact with a British journalist reporting from conflict-torn eastern Ukraine. RT said on its website it had been unable to reach Graham Phillips since the early hours of Wednesday after he went to cover intense fighting around Donetsk airport. The channel said it received a text message from Phillips saying "All is fine" at around 2:00am, after which contact was lost. RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, posted a link to the story on her Twitter account, saying "our stringer Graham Phillips has gone missing in Ukraine." RT said it had warned...

A series of disturbing new allegations emerged today that added further weight to claims pro-Russian rebels looted the MH17 crash scene to sabotage the investigation and cash in on the disaster. In the first, desperate relatives revealed how they had called the mobile phones of their loves ones - only for them to be answered by strangers with 'eastern European-sounding voices'.... New evidence has also emerged that the rebels allegedly planned to sabotage the investigation by contaminating the site with parts from other planes.... Meanwhile, an alleged decree by rebel commander Igor Strelkov appears to admit that the bodies of...

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On Monday, four days after Vladimir Putin’s minions in Ukraine shot down a passenger airliner carrying 298 people, including an American citizen, President Barack Obama emerged from the White House to issue a statement. Scowling at the camera, Obama stated: “Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists. No one denies that. Russia has urged them on. Russia has trained them.” Finally, after fulminating for several minutes about the nastiness of the Russian government, Obama approached the predictable climax: threats of action. Except that there were none. Instead, Obama explained that if Russia were to ignore his warnings, it would “only...

Washington Seeks to Counter Russian Claims About MH17 Crash U.S. intelligence officials presented reporters with their most detailed case yet Tuesday that Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists shot down a Malaysia Airlines jetliner last week, in a bid to counter what American officials see as Russian efforts to muddy the waters with claims of Ukrainian culpability. The officials relied on photographs, social media, and voiceprint analysis of Ukrainian communications intercepts to make their public case that a likely SA-11 antiaircraft weapon fired from separatist-controlled territory shot down the commercial airliner, killing 298 people on board. The evidence cited, however, didn't raise the...

Ukraine Says Su-25s Were Shot Down From Russian Territory 14:38 (GMT) There are breaking reports that Andrei Lysenko, the spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (SNBO) has told reporters at a briefing just now that the two Ukrainian Air Force Su-25s shot down today were hit by missiles fired from Russian territory. Kirit Radia ✔ @KiritRadia: Ukrainian military jets shot down today were fired upon from the RUSSIAN side of the border, Ukrainian official says now at briefing 9:28 AM - 23 Jul 2014 Kirit Radia ✔ @KiritRadia: More: Ukraine says shots that brought down military planes...

Churchill: Never give in. Never, never, never. FDR: The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. Obama: Fore left! Sometimes public service demands too much of a man. Take poor Tony Blinken. Appearing on Morning Joe today, President Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser actually claimed that the president was exhibiting "extraordinary leadership" in putting pressure on Russia over Ukraine. Yes, so "extraordinary" that even as Blinken was being introduced, news was breaking that the Putin-backed Ukrainian rebels had resumed their terrorist ways, shooting down two Ukrainian military planes. View the video here.

Ultimate responsibility for the massacre of the 298 people aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 begins and ends in the Kremlin office of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Even if the triggermen who fired the missile turn out to be Donetsk locals, the so-called pro-Russian separatist militia fighters are armed and advised by Russian intelligence officers. Until this latest outrage, Putin's KGB-type agitation-propaganda campaign had provided timorous Europeans and Americans with enough anecdotal deceit to give his militia proxies media cover. MH17's fatal interception has opened eyes. For several good reasons, to include photos of SA-11 mobile launchers departing Ukraine for Russia,...

On Monday, four days after Vladimir Putin's minions in Ukraine shot down a passenger airliner carrying 298 people, including an American citizen, President Barack Obama emerged from the White House to issue a statement. Scowling at the camera, Obama stated: "Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists. No one denies that. Russia has urged them on. Russia has trained them." Finally, after fulminating for several minutes about the nastiness of the Russian government, Obama approached the predictable climax: threats of action. Except that there were none. Instead, Obama explained that if Russia were to ignore his warnings, it would "only...

Obama has a new get-tough policy with Russia. It’s called the War on the Billionaires. The United States is using narrow sanctions against Russian billionaires—private persons presumably-- some of whom Obama supposes supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. And the policy isn’t just bizarre; it’s Obama. He’s seen our war on millionaires here at home, and raised them a war on billionaires in Russia. “The U.S. and Europe are gearing up for a new round of sanctions expected to be announced this week that will impose travel bans and business sanctions against several Russian billionaires with ties to Russian President Vladimir...