Headline News 17/12/2016

Headlines

• Obama uses Russia and then blames it for Atrocities in Aleppo

• FBI agrees with CIA over Russian hack of American presidential election

• Pentagon demands return of American drone captured by Chinese in South China Sea

Details

Obama uses Russia and then blames it for Atrocities in Aleppo

In his last press conference of the year, which the US President uses to present a roundup of the year’s developments, Obama has placed the full blame for Aleppo’s atrocities on Assad and Russia. According to Bloomberg:

“The responsibility for this brutality lies in one place alone,” Obama said at his last annual end-of-the-year news conference at the White House on Friday. “This blood and these atrocities are on their hands.”

It is Obama who brought Russia to the Syrian conflict because he did not have the confidence to involve American forces directly in yet another war in the Muslim world. It is impossible for Russia to undertake such operations without American permission. And it is Obama who allowed Russia to undertake the extremely intense bombing of Aleppo in these last weeks. Russia has overwhelming military power, the second-most powerful in the world after America, and could have used this force much before this time. But Obama only gave permission for this now, after realising that his Presidency was close to an end without achieving any results in Syria.

Even in this press conference, his detailed comments actually serve to support what Russia is doing. Bloomberg further reports Obama saying:

Obama said Friday that an “impartial observer force” should supervise the evacuation of civilians and rebels from Aleppo through “safe corridors” and ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered.

A “broader cease-fire” could “serve as a basis of a political rather than military solution,” he said. “Over the long term, the Assad regime cannot slaughter its way to legitimacy.”

The purpose of evacuating eastern Aleppo is to fully consolidate the regime’s control over the city. Similarly a cease-fire at this time will only consolidate Assad’s criminal gains at this time.

It is not only hypocritical for America to blame Russia for atrocities after themselves arranging for Russia to do so. It is also hypocritical for America to talk of atrocities by any other power when America is itself the most inhumane and ruthless power on Earth, from the time of the nuclear bombing of Japan in the last century to the mass murder of millions of Muslims in wars in this century.

FBI agrees with CIA over Russian hack of American presidential election

The initial portion of Obama’s press conference was dominated by discussion of Russian involvement in the US presidential election, particularly the massive leak of Democratic Party internal emails through Wikileaks. According to the Washington Post:

FBI Director James B. Comey and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. are in agreement with a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in part to help Donald Trump win the White House, officials disclosed Friday, as President Obama issued a public warning to Moscow that it could face retaliation.

The same article reports on Obama’s comments on this matter during his press conference:

“I think we handled it the way it should have been handled,” he said of the hacking investigation and the lack of a formal accusation of blame until a month before the election. “We allowed law enforcement and the intelligence community to do its job without political influence.”

In fact, contrary to Obama’s assertions, law enforcement and the intelligence community have always been deeply involved in political matters even within America.

FBI Director Comey’s last minute botched intervention in the presidential election, also mentioned in the press conference, was just the most obvious attempt at political interference. Most probably Comey was in fact attempting to help Hillary Clinton by introducing the issue at this moment only so that he could resoundingly clear her of all wrongdoing. In fact, however, Comey’s badly handled clearance of Clinton only served to increase doubts about her conduct, and she has been reported as blaming Comey as being responsible for her losing in multiple electoral districts.

In the American system, principles are only to coerce others into desired action. The West’s own actions are always strongly affected by material benefit.

Pentagon demands return of American drone captured by Chinese in South China Sea

According to the New York Times:

“The Pentagon on Friday demanded the return of an underwater drone that was seized by China as an American crew was moving in to retrieve it. The episode threatens to increase tensions in a region already fraught with great-power rivalries.

A Chinese warship had been shadowing the Bowditch, a United States naval vessel, in the international waters of the South China Sea when the Chinese launched a small boat and snatched the unmanned underwater vehicle, the Pentagon said.

Ignoring radio demands from the Americans to return the drone, the Chinese ship sailed off.
The episode set off one of the tensest standoffs between Beijing and Washington in 15 years and occurred a day after the Chinese signaled that they had installed weapons along a string of disputed islands in the South China Sea.

The seizure of the drone brought a formal protest from the United States at a time when China is extending claims over the South China Sea and is watching the United States — and its incoming president — with wariness.”

Tensions with China have increased after Donald Trump received a phone call from the Taiwan president and then publicly disparaged the “One-China” policy according to which Taiwan is considered to be a province of China and not an independent country. Obama also made mention of this in his press conference, according to Bloomberg:

“For China, the issue of Taiwan is as important as anything on their docket. The idea of One-China is at the heart of their conception as a nation,” Obama said at his last year-end news conference at the White House. “If you’re going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences are.”

However, China knows that Trump’s actions are merely a continuation of existing American policy and so has not waited for him to assume office to begin their response.
Muslims can learn much from the conflicts between the disbelievers. Most importantly, there is much space in the existing world system for the righteous Khilafah "Caliphate" State on the method of Prophethood. The disbelievers have too many conflicts between each other to be able to undertake a unified attempt to prevent its re-establishment.