{"article":{"id":291652,"heading":"Irresponsible NYT Putin Bashing","author":"Stephen Lendman","created":"2015-10-07 11:31:55","modified":"2015-10-07 11:31:55","last_modified":"Wed, 07 Oct 2015 18:31:55","article":"<p>Irresponsible NYT Putin Bashing <br><br> by Stephen Lendman <br><br> The Times is an establishment publication - a longstanding mouthpiece for wealth, power and privilege, militantly anti-Russian. All the news it calls fit to print isn&rsquo;t fit to read! <br><br> Its latest anti-Putin editorial salvo headlined &ldquo;Mr. Putin&rsquo;s Motives in Syria,&rdquo; falsely accusing him of &ldquo;sending &lsquo;volunteer&rsquo; ground forces into Syria&rdquo; - repeating the same Big Lie about nonexistent &ldquo;Russian aggression&rdquo; in Ukraine.&rdquo; <br><br> Spuriously claiming he&rsquo;s bombing nonexistent &ldquo;Syrian rebels,&rdquo; so-called moderates no one can find, &ldquo;phantoms&rdquo; according to Sergey Lavrov, not ISIS and other terrorist groups. <br><br> Times editors viciously attacked Putin&rsquo;s righteous campaign against terrorism, polar opposite US policy, using imported death squads as proxy foot soldiers, trained by CIA operatives and Pentagon special forces to reign terror where they&rsquo;re deployed. <br><br> A litany of Times editorial lies followed. Putin is sending &ldquo;young Russians&hellip;to face mortal danger.&rdquo; His &ldquo;very dangerous gamble&rdquo; may &ldquo;make matters far more complex.&rdquo; <br><br> He&rsquo;s &ldquo;(p)ropping up a flailing ally&rdquo; - demeaning Assad&rsquo;s responsible efforts to rid Syria of the scourge of terrorism, outrageously blaming him for Obama&rsquo;s war, naked aggression by any standard, turning truth on its head saying he &ldquo;killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians, dr(ove) millions from their homes and destroyed vast stretches of the country.&rdquo;  <br><br> Putin&rsquo;s &ldquo;flex(ing) his muscles (again) before a Russian public&hellip;But he may not be strutting for long.&rdquo; If he was &ldquo;eager for peace, he could have&hellip;pressure(d) Assad&rdquo; to step down. <br><br> &ldquo;Instead, he supported (his) brutal reprisals against civilians and the opposition&hellip;&rdquo; Putin is &ldquo;making a grandstand play.&rdquo; <br><br> This is what passes for so-called Times journalism and opinion - pure rubbish, yellow journalism at its worst, ignoring vital hard truths, featuring willful misinformation and Big Lies. <br><br> The so-called &ldquo;newspaper of record&rdquo; is a national disgrace, a lying machine, waging war on truth and full disclosure. <br><br> Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov debunked the Big Lie about Russia troops in Syria masquerading as &ldquo;volunteers,&rdquo; saying &ldquo;such organizations exist and act independently.&rdquo;  <br><br> They have nothing to do with Kremlin policy. Putin &ldquo;has not stated his attitude on this issue. He is mainly concentrating on those people who fall a victim to the influence of Islamic State, who go there, who are concentrated there and get into the hands of extremist or terrorist organizations, and who later&hellip;(return home) morally crippled.&rdquo; <br><br> A previous article suggested Putin might expand his anti-terrorism campaign to Iraq if Baghdad requests help. On October 7, the Wall Street Journal headlined &ldquo;Iraqi Shiite Politicians Call for Russian Airstrikes on Islamic State,&rdquo; saying: <br><br> They&rsquo;re &ldquo;largely united in&hellip;prais(ing) Moscow&rsquo;s intervention and (want) &ldquo;Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to invite Russia to join the battle.&rdquo; <br><br> He said he welcomes Russian help as long as it&rsquo;s coordinated with Washington. Iraq, Russia, Iran and Syria already have an intelligence sharing operation headquartered in Baghdad. <br><br> Russian upper house Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said: <br><br> &ldquo;In the case of an appeal by the Iraqi leadership to Russian Federation, the country&rsquo;s leadership will consider the political and military expediency of our air force&rsquo;s participation in an air operation. No appeal yet has been made.&rdquo; <br><br> Iraq and Syria share a long porous 605 km border. ISIS elements move freely across it in either direction. Degrading and defeating them in Syria won&rsquo;t eliminate them as long as safe haven in Iraq exists. <br><br> On October 7, RT International said &ldquo;Iraq may soon request Russian airstrikes against ISIS on its soil,&rdquo; citing its parliament defense panel head Hakim al-Zamili. <br><br> Baghdad may request Russian help in days or weeks, he said - challenging Washington&rsquo;s regional imperial project more than already if Moscow expands its war on terror cross-border. <br><br> Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net\" rel=\"nofollow\">lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net<\/a>.  <br><br> His new book as editor and contributor is titled \"Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.\" <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanIII.html<\/a> <br><br> Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.  <br><br> Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. <br><br> It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. <\/p>\n","contact":"lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net","link":"sjlendman.blogspot.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Syria","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2015\/10\/291652.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}