U.S. Embassy announces an important change to visa application procedures

November 4, 2015 By administrator

Starting November 9, 2015, the U.S. Embassy in Armenia will be changing its visa procedures to make it easier for approved visa applicants to pick up their visas and for certain current visa holders to renew their visas. There is no additional cost for this improved service, according to the press and media section of the U.S. Embassy

Starting on November 9, approved visa applicants will no longer have to return to the Embassy to pick up their passport containing their visa. Rather, all approved applicants will pick up their passports with their visas from UMAKS, the DHL representative in Armenia, located at 27 Amiryan St. in Yerevan. Applicants told during their visa interview that they were approved, will later receive an e-mail notification that their visa is ready for pick up at the Amiryan location. Applicants can also designate third parties to pick up their passports for them. More details will be available at www.usvisa-info.com.

“We know it can be difficult to get to the Embassy,” Consul Frank Tu said. “We hope our visa applicants will find this process easier. For no additional fee, they will be able to stroll over to the DHL office on Amiryan and pick up their approved visas. We aim to make the visa application procedure as simple and easy as possible.”

Some individuals, those who have previously had visas and meet certain requirements for interview-free visa renewal, will also be able to renew their visas by dropping their application packets off at the Amiryan DHL office after submitting the on-line application and paying the regular visa application fee. If approved, these applicants will receive a notification e-mail to return to DHL to pick up their new visas. For more information on who qualifies for interview-free visa renewal, visit the Embassy website: http://armenia.usembassy.gov/interview_waiver.html.

Even those applicants who come to the Embassy for an interview and are asked to provide additional documents, will be able to submit those documents via the DHL location, eliminating the need for additional trips to the Embassy.

This change affects all applicants scheduled for interviews after November 9. No additional fee is required to be paid at the DHL office, as the service is covered by the regular visa application fee, which is not changing.

Source: Panorama.am

Bush, Blair plotted Iraq war 1 year before invasion had started: White House memo

October 17, 2015 By administrator

Bush and Blair are shaking hands in February 2001. (AFP photo)

A damning White House memo has revealed details of the so-called “deal in blood” forged by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush over the Iraq war.

The document, titled “Secret… Memorandum for the President”, was sent by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell to President Bush on March 28, 2002, a week before Bush’s summit with Blair at his Crawford ranch in Texas, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on Sunday.

The sensational memo revealed that Blair had agreed to support the war a year before the invasion even started, while publicly the British prime minister was working to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

The document also disclosed that Blair agreed to act as a spin doctor for Bush and convince a skeptical public that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, which actually did not exist.

In response, Bush would flatter Blair and give the impression that London was not Washington’s poodle but an equal partner in the “special relationship.”

Powell told Bush that Blair “will be with us” on the Iraq war, and assured the president that “”the UK will follow our lead in the Middle East.”

Another sensational memo revealed how Bush used “spies” in the British Labour Party to help him to influence public opinion in the United Kingdom in favor of the Iraq war.

Both documents were obtained and published by The Mail on Sunday. They are part of a number of classified emails stored on the private server of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton which courts have forced her to reveal.

Blair has always denied the claim that he and Bush signed a deal “in blood” at Crawford to launch a war against Iraq that began on March 20, 2003, that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The Powell memo, however, showed how Blair and Bush secretly prepared the Iraq war plot behind closed doors at Crawford.

Powell told Bush: “He will present to you the strategic, tactical and public affairs lines that he believes will strengthen global support for our common cause.”

The top US diplomatic official added that the UK premier has the presentational skills to “make a credible public case on current Iraqi threats to international peace.”

Powell wrote that Blair will “stick with us on the big issues” but he needs to show the British public that “Britain and America are truly equity partners in the special relationship.”

n March 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding WMDs. But no such weapons were ever discovered in Iraq.

More than one million Iraqis were killed as the result of the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of the country, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored.

The US war in Iraq cost American taxpayers $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, according to a study called Costs of War Project by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

Source: presstv.com

Turkey’s lobbyist Dennis Hastert has agreed to plead guilty in a case tied to hush money over sexual misconduct claims

October 15, 2015 By administrator

J. Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, leaving the federal courthouse in Chicago in June. Credit Christian K. Lee/Associated Press

Thursday, October 15, 2015 10:39 AM EDT
J. Dennis Hastert, the small-town wrestling coach who rose to political power as the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House, indicated in Federal District Court on Thursday that he would plead guilty as part of a plea agreement in a case where he is accused of skirting banking laws and lying to the federal investigators.
A federal prosecutor told the court that the government expects a written plea agreement to be given to the judge on Monday and have asked for a hearing on Oct. 28, at which Mr. Hastert is expected to change his plea to guilty from not guilty.
It was unclear what charges that Mr. Hastert would plead guilty to and what the sentence may be.

farsnews Report: US, Turkish Intelligence Coordinated ISIL Leader’s Transfer to Turkey for Treatment

October 14, 2015 By administrator

ISIL Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

(FNA) “The CIA has drone coordination with the Turkish intelligence organization to transfer al-Baghdadi to Turkey,” the Arabic-language al-Manar TV quoted unnamed sources as saying on Wednesday.

The source said that two companions of al-Baghdadi who were also injured in the attack on the ISIL leader’s convoy and were captured by the Iraqi forces have confirmed that al-Baghdadi has been injured in the Sunday attack.

A military statement by the Iraqi Army announced on Sunday that the Iraqi air force had bombed the convoy of al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Al-Karable to attend a meeting with ISIL commanders.

Al-Karable is the Subdistrict in the West of the Al Anbar province of Iraq, beside the Syrian border in an area of high ground.

On Sunday, Spokesman of Iraqi joint forces announced that the ISIL leader had been injured and over two dozen more Takfiri terrorists killed in the Iraqi army’s airstrike on their convoy in Anbar province.

Al-Baghdadi was injured in the Iraqi airstrike on his convoy on Sunday and was transferred to another place by his forces, the spokesman said.

He also said that 25 other ISIL terrorists who were accompanying al-Baghdadi were killed in the airstrike.

Arabic-language media outlets said a special unit of Iraq’s air force known as the Falcons who have so far managed to kill several ISIL leaders in various operations, including an efficient attack on a number of top terrorist commanders on June 1, has done the airstrike.

Several ISIL commanders were killed in the June airstrike, including Abu Hareth Al-Shami, Abu Aeshe al-Ansari – an explosives expert – Moroccan national Abu Yousef Al-Jezrawi, Abu Hussein Al-Salmani who was in charge of ISIL’s Zakah (an Islamic tax system) issues, and Wa’d al-Latif Jom’eh al-Mohammadi who was in charge of ISIL’s suicide operation agents.

Source: farsnews.com

Interview: Who Is This ‘Moderate Opposition’ The US Is Arming in Syria?

October 14, 2015 By administrator

Various Islamist militant groups are hiding behind different names, but they are all fulfilling the same functions as ISIL, and Washington is set to arm the ‘Syrian opposition’ without being able to tell one group from another, the founder and editor of International NSNBC news portal Dr. Christof Lehmann told Radio Sputnik.

Lehman does not believe that giving arms to the Syrian opposition, a policy of the US government, can possibly help stabilize the situation in the region, he said in an interview on Tuesday.
“I think, the US should answer [a] series of questions. Number one: who exactly is this opposition? Are they wearing military uniforms, insignia, who is commanding them, what exactly is the command structure, are they adherent to the rules of warfare, etc? All that we don’t have any answers [to],” the expert revealed.
By refusing to provide the Russian military with ISIL’s coordinates in Syria, the US-led coalition is conducting its own strategy, Lehman explains.
“It’s an attempt to spread the belt of low-intensity conflicts from the Mediterranean to Baluchistan along the soft and resource-rich underbelly of Russia and former Soviet republics … to China, Lehmann describes. “That’s an attempt to destabilize that region and to weaken the Russian Federation and other Central-Asian countries,” he points out.
“[The] Russian government’s assessment … that airstrikes in Syria would be necessary also to maintain Russian national security interests is a correct one,” Lehman stated.
Commenting on a recent announcement by a spokesman of al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda branch in Syria, calling for a crusade against Russia to avenge their airstrikes, Lehman shed light on the affiliations and purpose of this organization.
“Al-Nusra [Front] is … Saudi, in part Qatar, in part pro-Israeli proxy… These statements are basically a proxy’s statements towards Russia within the context of creating the belt of low-intensity conflicts [across the region],” Lehman described.
There little difference between the various Islamist militant groups, currently waging war in Syria, the expert points out.
“These organizations, al-Nusra [Front], ISIL, Liwa al-Islam, Southern Shield, and others – all can easily swap names, be exchanged, have a slight change in command structure, but the function remains the same,” Lehman revealed.
Defeating ISIL won’t be enough, he believes.
“It doesn’t really matter, whether one would defeat ISIL, or whether ISIL disintegrates… There will be others who have exactly the same function,” Lehman added.
The expert sees a reconfiguration of the Middle East unavoidable.
“There are issues like the drawing of borders by former colonial powers, there is a Kurdish question, the latest national group that doesn’t have a state,” Lehmann explained, and concluded “There are a lot of issues there.”

Source: sputniknews.com

Turkey summons ambassadors from Russia, US

October 14, 2015 By administrator

Turkey has summoned ambassadors from both Russia and the United States regarding ties with Kurdish forces in Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, reacting to any probable arms support to groups which have ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party(PKK), Hurriyet Daily News reported.
“As the ally countries would not excuse arms support to al-Qaeda-affiliated groups, Turkey cannot excuse any armed support to groups linked to the PKK; it certainly cannot allow any tolerance in this matter,” he said during an Istanbul joint press conference with his visiting Bulgarian counterpart, Boyko Borrisov, on Octber 14, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The prime minister said no one could guarantee that the arms sent to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria would not be taken over by the PKK and used against Turkey.
Davutoglu’s reactions came as the US Department of Defense confirmed that a U.S. cargo plane had airdropped logistic material to the PYD late October 11 in line with Washington’s plans to reinforce the Syrian Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.
On October 13, Davutoglu lashed out at both the United States and Russia for supplying weapons and support to the PYD in its bid to fight extremist jihadists. While talking toAnkara newspaper bureau chiefs, Davutoğlu called the United States’ ambassador to Turkey, John Bass, to the Foreign Ministry to convey Ankara’s strong reaction over the airdropping of ammunition.

US Military Airdrops Tons of Ammo to New Rebel Group in Syria’s North

October 12, 2015 By administrator

A group of US cargo aircraft airdropped overnight some 50 tons of small fire ammunition and explosives to rebels in northern Syria’s Hasakah province, CNN reported Monday citing a US official speaking on condition of anonymity.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The broadcaster claimed that this was a first step in a US effort to boost support to what the White House refers to as moderate opposition forces fighting regular Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar Assad.
C-17 cargo planes dropped ammunition on 112 pallets to be retrieved by opposition fighters on the ground from a US-vetted group called by Washington the Syrian Arab Coalition.
According to the CNN, the newly-named Syrian anti-government force was first mentioned by Christine Wormuth, policy undersecretary at the US Defense Department, during Congressional testimony in September.
She said the group was being trained as part of a train-and-equip mission for anti-Assad opposition factions in Syria.

Death toll rises to 16 at Afghan hospital as U.S. confirms strike and cites possible ‘collateral damage’

October 3, 2015 By administrator

Saturday, October 3, 2015 11:17 AM EDT
A United States airstrike appeared to have badly damaged a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in the Afghan city of Kunduz early Saturday, killing at least 16 people, including patients and staff, and wounding dozens.
The United States military, in a statement, confirmed the 2:15 a.m. airstrike, saying that it had been targeting individuals “who were threatening the force” and that “there may have been collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.”

Source: nytime

US Spent a Year Bombing Syrian Desert, Not ISIL – Russian MP

October 2, 2015 By administrator

The United States spent a whole year bombing the desert instead of hitting terrorist targets in Syria, the head of the Russian parliament’s international affairs committee wrote on Friday.

“[Senator John] McCain accused us of striking out at US-trained insurgents… However, since they have either run away or joined al-Qaeda, hitting them is a mission impossible,” Alexei Pushkov wrote on his Twitter account.

In an interview with France’s Europe 1 Radio Pushkov said that the Russian aerial campaign in Syria would take three to four months.“The US-led coalition spent a whole year pretending they were striking ISIL targets but where are the results of these strikes?” Pushkov wondered.

The White House had earlier said that the Russian air forces was targeting areas in Syria where ISIL militants were nowhere in sight.

Besides, John McCain, chairman of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, said that he could “absolutely confirm” that Russian air strikes had hit Free Syrian Army recruits who had been armed and trained by the US, a claim that was later denied by the Pentagon.

Briefing reporters in Moscow on Wednesday, a defense ministry spokesman said that the Russian air force had flown twenty sorties targeting ISIL military equipment, communication facilities, arms depots, ammunition and fuel supplies — and did not hit civilian infrastructure or areas nearby.

Source: sputniknews.com

Iraqi Christians denied asylum in US, facing looming expulsion

October 1, 2015 By administrator

The Chaldeans being held at Otay have numerous supporters in El Cajon and throughout San Diego County. (Courtesy: East County Magazine/Miriam Raftery)

By Hollie McKay

Nearly two dozen Iraqi Christians who fled ISIS and crossed into the U.S. from Mexico seeking religious asylum have been denied protection and could be booted from American soil within days, a federal official said.

Some 27 Iraqi Christians, known as Chaldeans, were held at the Otay Detention Center in San Diego since entering the U.S. in April and May. Seven have already been extradited, and five more criminally charged with making false statements. In all, 22 have been ordered out of the U.S. and five still have asylum applications pending, according to Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Diego.

“This is extremely disturbing and wrong,” Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International, told FoxNews.com. “I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve been doing this work for more than 20 years. Western governments should allow persecuted minority Christians asylum within their borders. This should be a priority over other asylum seekers.”

“This is extremely disturbing and wrong.”

– Jim Jacobson, president of Christian Freedom International

Jacobson and other critics say the Obama administration has turned its back on Christians in the Middle East, whose numbers have dwindled in the face of ISIS, which forces Christians to convert, pay a special tax or face execution in the territory it controls within Iraq and Syria. A Gatestone Institute report notes that since the start of this year, more than 4,200 Muslims have been admitted into the U.S. from Iraq, but only 727 Christians – making it a ratio of around 5 to 1 – despite the fact that Christians are a heavily targeted “infidel” minority.

Mack insisted that the Iraqi nationals in question have not and will not be sent back to their war-torn home country, but instead “repatriated” to “agreed upon” countries like Germany and Sweden.

San Diego is home to the largest population of Chaldeans in the U.S., and several of the 27 held at Otay have family members willing to take them in.

“Until this decision, having a family sponsor has always been a huge positive factor in adjudicating asylum cases,” said Jacobson. “Christians are facing unspeakable torture and atrocities at the hands of ISIS.”

Yet Mack said that there are legal immigration protocols that need to be followed for family sponsorships, which, in this case, were not adhered to by the Chaldeans. Under international law, asylum is only granted in specific emergency situations in which an individual or group requires protection from persecution. A select few of the criminal complaints against the Chaldeans, provided to FoxNews.com by ICE, contain statements and allegations that at least some of them – although born in Iraq – held German passports and had been living there for a number of years. In interviews with officials, some applicants allegedly admitted that their claims of family threats were “fabricated” to assist with their applications. Details regarding the remaining Chaldeans could not be discussed due to the confidentiality of their applicants.

American Center for Democracy CEO Rachel Ehrenfeld pointed out that all refugees – regardless of religion – should be heavily scrutinized by officials before being granted entry into the U.S.

“I’m not surprised by ICE ruling, especially since it seems several, if not all, lied on their asylum application,” she said.

But Jacobson said the process may “make it impossible for any Christian man, woman or child facing persecution because of their faith” to gain entry and holds grave fears for the religious minority. No one disputes that the Chaldeans are originally from Iraq, and given that they can’t return to their homeland, Jacobson wonders why they can’t live with family in the U.S.

Iraq’s Christian population is one of the most ancient in the world, but is teetering on extinction amid Islamic extremism and government corruption – dwindling from around 1.5 million in 2003 to well below 200,000 now. Under the reign of ISIS, Christians in the region have been brutally persecuted and intentionally crucified, with their own churches reportedly used as torture chambers in which they are given the grim option of converting to Islam or being slaughtered.

“I feel like my world has been turned back to 100 years ago,” one Christian farmer who fled Mosul, Iraq, during the ISIS takeover told FoxNews.com. “That day was like Armageddon. ISIS is killing us slowly.”

The militant group has also destroyed countless time-honored Christian monasteries and holy sites in a twisted attempt to eradicate the faith. In Defense of Christians, a persecution watchdog group, earlier this month lobbied on Capitol Hill for lawmakers to pass a resolution characterizing ISIS’s targeting of the Christian minority as “genocide.”

Source: FOXNEWS