When making a sandwich one starts at the bottom:
"1980 coup leaders given life sentences in Turkey" by Suzan Fraser | Associated Press June 19, 2014
ANKARA, Turkey — In a showcase trial aimed at ending the military’s interference in Turkish politics for good, a court convicted the only two surviving leaders of the country’s 1980 military coup of crimes against the state and sentenced them to life imprisonment Wednesday.
Kenan Evren, 97, the military chief of staff who led the takeover and went on to serve as president until 1989, and Tahsin Sahinkaya, the 89-year-old former air force chief, had been on trial since 2012. They are the first coup leaders to be prosecuted in the country, where the military has overthrown three governments since the 1960s and pressured an Islamic-led government to quit in 1997.
The 1980 military takeover stopped deadly fighting between political extremists but also led to a wave of executions, torture, and disappearances.
With Western approval, no doubt.
The two men — who did not attend the trial because of ill health and testified by video link from their hospital beds — will immediately appeal the verdict, their lawyer Burak Baskale told the Associated Press.
Their prosecution was made possible after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, intent on burying the military influence in Turkish politics, secured constitutional amendments in 2010 to revoke their immunity.
The court also ruled that the two retired generals should be stripped of their military ranks, reducing them to privates, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
‘‘Turkey needed to settle scores with past coups in order to get rid of the issue of coups,’’ Huseyin Celik, a deputy leader of Erdogan’s ruling party told NTV television. ‘‘Although an appeal is possible, justice has been served.’’
Evren was initially regarded as a hero by many Turks because the Sept. 12, 1980, military takeover stopped the fighting. But he was later accused of condoning the chaos in the years before the coup and using it as an excuse for the military to step in and restore order. He shut down Parliament, suspended the constitution, imprisoned civilian leaders, and disbanded political parties, then quit the military. He was president until 1989.
Some 650,000 people were detained in the upheaval and 230,000 people were prosecuted in military courts, according to official figures. Around 300 people died in prison, including 171 as a result of torture. There were 49 executions, including that of a 17-year-old.
Testifying in 2012, Evren described the coup as a necessary act that he would repeat under the same conditions.
--more--"
Turkey's government and its relationship with the military are tough to chew on. It's a NATO tool when it comes to Syria, yet is at war with its Kurdish population in an area that serves as an USraeli intelligence base for the region. These same Kurds attack Iran while Turkey cozies up to them and is allegedly at odds with Israel. It's the crossroads of confusion since the military is even more closely aligned with the West.
So, the meat of the sandwich:
"Turkish officers in plot to be released" New York Times June 20, 2014
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s highest criminal court on Thursday ordered the release and retrial of 230 military officers who were convicted in 2012 of trying to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The decision by the constitutional court came one day after it had delivered a landmark ruling saying that the defendants’ rights had been violated.
The officers were among the 330 convicted in the “Sledgehammer” case, so called because of the code name of an alleged plot to destabilize the government through clandestine attacks. Many of the remaining convictions were previously overturned on appeal.
I wonder if was part of Operation Gladio.
The case was widely viewed by legal and forensic specialists as tainted by dubious evidence, and was seen as an act of revenge carried out by Turkey’s Islamists, including the prime minister, against their former oppressors in the military.
The court’s order was a victory of sorts for Erdogan, who recently began discrediting the convictions even though they had been hailed as one of his most important accomplishments: securing civilian control over the military.
The armed forces had forced out four civilian governments over four decades and persecuted pious Turks, who now form the base of Erdogan’s support.
--more--"
And now the top slice of bread:
"Obama seeks $500m to train Syria opposition; Action would expand direct US involvement" by Karen DeYoung | Washington Post June 27, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration asked Congress on Thursday to authorize $500 million in direct US military training and equipment for Syrian opposition fighters, a move that could significantly escalate US involvement in Syria’s civil war.
This after Assad has won the war and chased ISIS into Iraq, and the American people are lashed with service cuts from this rotted carcass of of a corrupt government.
Money for the assistance, which would expand a CIA covert training program, is included in a $65.8 billion request for the Pentagon’s Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO.
This is sandwich is getting tough.
The administration has said repeatedly in recent weeks that it was preparing additional assistance to vetted ‘‘moderate’’ opposition forces fighting both the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, who have now spread their area of control across the Syrian border into Iraq.
They can't sell another war to the American people so they are going to stick with the covert overthrow attempt and port more money into it.
If Congress approves the funding, it would mark the first direct US military participation in the Syrian conflict. The training would probably take place in neighboring Jordan, where the CIA is currently training Syrian opposition forces, and possibly in Turkey.
Yeah, Turkey is harboring terrorists, too, but no one is making a big deal about it.
‘‘While we continue to believe that there is no military solution to this crisis and that the United States should not put American troops into combat in Syria, this request marks another step toward helping the Syrian people defend themselves against [Assad] regime attacks, push back against the growing number of extremists . . . who find safe-haven in the chaos, and take their future into their own hands by enhancing security and stability at local levels,’’ National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.
The babbling double-talk from Washington D.C. isn't even worth the effort anymore.
The request does not specify the type of military equipment that would be included. Under the existing covert program, the administration has sent limited quantities of small arms and ammunition and has allowed others to send US-made antitank weapons.
But the administration has rebuffed opposition calls for sophisticated weapons, including portable antiaircraft missiles. Placing the training and equipment programs in the hands of the military, rather than the CIA, theoretically will make US aid to the Syrian opposition more transparent.
In theory.
Although some lawmakers have warned President Obama to stay away from direct involvement in the Syria conflict, many have criticized the administration for dragging its feet on significant aid to the rebels and allowing the Islamic State and other extremist Sunni groups to expand in the region.
Yeah, too bad US intelligence created and funded those groups with Saudi help.
A strong bipartisan majority of the Senate Armed Services Committee approved language similar to the OCO Syria request during its consideration of the overall Pentagon budget. In initial congressional response to the new request, that panel’s chairman, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, voiced support.
Good thing we have a peace party like the Democrats.
Not the only thing Engel and Levin have in common, either.
Details of the OCO budget had been withheld from the administration’s overall fiscal 2015 defense budget request, being considered by Congress. The contingency funding also includes money to pay for other counterterrorism operations, increased military deployments in Eastern Europe and for ongoing US expenses in Afghanistan.
Yup, no matter WHAT WE SAY THGIS CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION and GOVERNMENT is GOING AHEAD with the WAR AGENDA!!
Well, GOD DAMN YOU, President Sphincter!!!!!!!!! That's my preemptive strike.
The speed with which the Islamic State forces have virtually eliminated the Syria-Iraq border and taken control of Iraqi cities and towns over the past two weeks has focused the administration’s attention on what now threatens to become a regional conflagration.
Part of a wider, globe-kicking plan.
Within the OCO request, the Syria money is part of a $5 billion fund announced by Obama last month to help build a new counterterrorism infrastructure with partner countries ‘‘from South Asia to the Sahel.’’
Yup, the WARS BASED ON FALSE FLAGS, HOAXES, and LIES will CONTINUE FOREVER!
Obummer is BUILDING the INFRASTRUCTURE just as his predecessor and his predecessor before him, and leaving it to that guys wife!!
Amazing how he can FIND $5 BILLION DOLLARS for a terror fund when they are cutting off food stamps, unemployment, and health spending.
Terrorism, Obama said, remains ‘‘the most direct threat to America at home and abroad,’’ but is no longer centered in an Al Qaeda leadership based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Instead, he said, the threat has become decentralized, with ‘‘emerging threats’’ from Al Qaeda associates and newly formed groups across the Middle East and into Africa.
Go suck on an "Al-CIA-Duh."
The Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, he said, ‘‘will allow us to train, build capacity and facilitate partner countries on the front lines.’’
A fact sheet released by the White House on Thursday said that $2.5 billion of the new funding would cover the costs of training and operations by both US Special Operations and conventional forces in partner nations, as well as intelligence and surveillance.
To hell with your sicknesses and hunger, Americans.
