U.S., Turkey, NATO Discuss Possible Military Invasion Of Syria
The U.S., Turkey and NATO have held high-level military meetings the past few days to discuss options regarding Syria, including the possibility of a military campaign targeting the regime of President Bashar Assad, informed Middle Eastern security officials told this column.
The security officials said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu sent a message to Assad via Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Araby reminding the Syrian ruler of an ultimatum reportedly delivered in September calling for an end to violence and major constitutional reforms by this month.
Davutoglu also told European Union leaders the time has come to use collective force to end Assad’s rule, the officials said.
Separately, a source from Assad’s regime claimed that thousands of Turkish troops have amassed near Syria’s border with Turkey. The source said that Turkey told Russia the troops were to stem the flow of PKK fighters of Kurdish gunmen moving in and out of the border with Syria.
Just yesterday, Turkey upped the ante by announcing it is suspending all activities at its embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus.
In February, this column reported that NATO countries are strongly considering the possibility of an international deployment to Syria if the Syrian opposition does not make major advances by the end of March.
Debate Over Obama’s Religious Identity Refuses To Die
With recent polling showing that a significant percentage of GOP voters think President Obama is a Muslim, the question of the president’s faith may rear its head again as the upcoming election cycle heats up.
A recently released book claimed Obama himself blamed Fox News for the persistent rumors on his faith.
Obama has long denied he was ever a Muslim. Addressing initial claims in 2008, his presidential campaign website from that year stated: “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.”
Obama’s closest affiliation with Christianity comes in the form of his attendance, for over 20 years, at Chicago’s Trinity United Church led by controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright Jr. The church practices Black Liberation Theology, which is a race-specific ideology that sees Christianity as a means to “liberate” people of color from claimed forms of subjugation.
Obama’s religious affiliation during his childhood years has long been in question. Public records in Indonesia listed Obama as a Muslim during his early years, and a number of childhood friends claimed to the media Obama was once a mosque-attending Muslim.
Panetta Co-Chaired Initiative To Subject U.S. Oceans To Intl. Law
Until his appointment as CIA director in 2009, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta co-chaired the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative to regulate U.S. oceans and cede them to United Nations-based international law.
Panetta’s oceans initiative was a key partner of an organization, Citizens for Global Solutions, that promotes world government. Also, the group’s parent organization, the World Federalist Movement, promotes democratized global institutions with plenary constitutional power.
The oceans initiative bills itself as a bipartisan, collaborative group that aims to “accelerate the pace of change that results in meaningful ocean policy reform.” Among its main recommendations is that the U.S. should put its oceans up for regulation to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
That UN convention defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of the world’s oceans, establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment and the management of marine natural resources.
U.S. Department Of Education Collaborates With George Soros Institute
The Department of Education has partnered with billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Institute to promote a global education initiative that seeks “a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge.”
Education Secretary Arne Duncan kicked off a $25,000 “Why Open Education Matters” competition that will give a cash prize for the best short video explaining the benefits of what is known as Open Educational Resources, or O.E.R., for students, teachers and schools.
O.E.R. is a form of global teaching that uses digital materials made available free through open licenses, which allow uses of the materials that would not be easily permitted under copyright alone.
The O.E.R. model of teaching heavily utilizes social media. O.E.R leaders have expressed hopes of using the education initiative to balance what they referred to as the digital divide between the “global North” and the “global South.”
The “Why Open Education Matters” competition is sponsored and organized by three groups – the U.S. Department of Education, Soros’s Open Society and a group known as Creative Commons.
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and share. The organization was founded in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, a technology adviser to President Obama. Lessig works closely with a Marxist activist who has argued for the dismantling of the U.S. capitalist system and whose George Soros-funded group petitions for more government control of the media.