SYRIA, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

THIS MAN NEEDS TO GO AKA BASHAR al-ASSAD.

Over the last several days, the Syrian crisis has exploded back into the news. As the U.S. debates how to respond to the now two-year long struggle, here’s the what you need to know:

How this all began

The current crisis in Syria began in 2011, with civilian protests launched during a wave of pro-democracy sentiment known as the Arab Spring. Those protests were met with harsh repression from the Syrian government under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad. Assad’s regime continued to crackdown on protesters, eventually resorting to massive human rights abuses including torture, disappearances, extrajudicial executions and detention of medical patients. In response, civilians began to take up arms against the Syrian government, transforming a peaceful movement to increase democratic freedoms into an all-out civil war. Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 70,000 Syrians have died.

Who’s doing the fighting
Over the past two years, the make-up of the Syrian opposition has shifted considerably. In the beginning, the opposition was composed mostly of civil society leaders and Syrian citizens with a small armed group taking shape across the border in Turkey. Since then, the rebels have spawned an entire network of loosely affiliated groups fighting against the Assad regime — and each other at times. Instead of hiding across the border, rebels now openly control a large swath of territory in the north and west of the country as the Syrian government continues to push back.

While many of the rebel groups are secular, recent months have shown an influx of foreign fighters into the country, seeking to impose a harsh version of Islam upon Syria once the Assad regime falls. The U.S. has labeled one such group — Jabhat al-Nusra — a terrorist group for its close ties to Al Qaeda. These murky connections between the rebels and jihadis have proved difficult for Western governments seeking to effect the situation on the ground.

The effect on the Syrian people and the region

As time wore on in the conflict, the Syrian government unleashed more and greater violence was against civilians, including the use of armored vehicles, fixed-wing aircraft and mortars against whole neighborhoods. Making matters worse, rebels are now accused of taking part in atrocities as well.

This has all led to a massive humanitarian crisis in Syria and the surrounding region. As of March, more than one million Syrians have fled into the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, placing a massive strain on those states’ governments. According to the United Nations, over 4.25 million Syrians are now internally displaced within the country.

Did Syria use chemical weapons?

Whether or not the Syrian government utilized chemical weapons against its people is the primary reason Syria has exploded back into the news. Last week, the United States announced that it has evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria, namely sarin. That revelation comes with several caveats, however: the chain of custody of the evidence the U.S. has isn’t clear, nor is exactly how the samples obtained were exposed to the chemical. The U.S. government has also not declared definitively whether or not it was the Assad regime that used sarin, an act that would cross a “red-line” the administration set forth as an action that would spur greater intervention.

The United States’ response

The Obama administration has declared several times that the Assad regime’s days are numbered and that the Syrian president must go. So far, however, the United States has stuck with its policy of providing humanitarian aid — more than $385 million worth to date — to Syria’s civilians and providing “non-lethal aid” to the opposition. That includes a recent decision to provide items such as night-vision goggles and bullet-proof vests to the rebels. The United States is also heavily involved in coordinating the flow of weapons to Syria from Gulf states while not providing such arms itself.

The question that remains is whether a greater U.S. intervention is necessary, and if so in what form. The range of possible responses under consideration range from directly providing arms to the Syrian opposition to establishing a No-Fly Zone in Syria to protect civilians and give the rebels cover to operate. The debate does not evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, with members on both sides advocating for swift action in Syria and members of both parties urging caution in proceeding forward. Even hawks like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), however, are coming out against the idea of American boots being on the ground in Syria.

The current policy towards Syria does not appear to be in the U.S.’ best interests, however. “It is time for a change in policy,” CAP experts said in a report on the situation in Syria released in February. “The United States needs to increase its assistance to the Syrian opposition with the goal of supporting an alternative opposition government that is better organized than at present.” Several CAP experts also last week released a series of recommended courses of action for the U.S. to lead the way in responding to the Assad regime’s possible use of chemical weapons. Such actions include coordinating with NATO and regional allies to provide a major humanitarian aid push for Syrian refugees and calling an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to put the onus on Russia to stand by the Syrian regime publicly in the aftermath of a likely chemical weapons attack.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

BUSH v. GORE REGRETS

Former Supreme Justice Sandra Day O' Connor

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the conservative retired justice who provided the fifth vote to install George W. Bush as president, is now having second thoughts about that decision:

Looking back, O’Connor said, she isn’t sure the high court should have taken [Bush v. Gore].

“It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue,” O’Connor said during a talk Friday with the Tribune editorial board. “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye.’”

The case, she said, “stirred up the public” and “gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation.”

“Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision,” she said. “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.“

If nothing else, Bush v. Gore demonstrates how justices who are determined to reach a certain result are capable of bending both the law and their own prior jurisprudence in order to achieve it. In Bush, the five conservative justices held, in the words of Harvard’s Larry Tribe, that “equal protection of the laws required giving no protection of the laws to the thousands of still uncounted ballots.”

The Court’s decision to hand the presidency to Bush stunned many legal observers, some of whom were O’Connor’s fellow justices. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens once recounted a story where he ran into fellow Justice Stephen Breyer at a party while a relatively early phase of the case was pending before the Court. According to Stevens, “we agreed that the application was frivolous.”

Indeed, Bush’s own lawyers were skeptical of the legal theory that ultimately made up the basis of the Court’s decision in Bush. As Ben Ginsberg, a top lawyer on Bush’s presidential campaign, explained in 2006, “just like really with the Voting Rights Act, Republicans have some fundamental philosophical difficulties with the whole notion of Equal Protection.”

And, yet, O’Connor and four of her fellow Republicans joined together to embrace a particularly aggressive reading of Equal Protection — at least so long as it could put George W. Bush in the White House.




NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

FAUX NEWS AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Jon Stewart seamlessly blasted Fox News’ sudden turnaround against the U.S. Constitution in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing. The host went right down the nation’s Supreme Law, and picked out several rights that the constitution-obsessed Fox wants revoked for bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Stewart started with the debate over reading the suspect his Miranda rights and questioned Fox hosts who didn’t seem to pay attention in government class.

JON STEWART

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Is there any constitutional right that Faux doesn’t want to strike in the wake of Boston? That’s what Stewart wondered as he juxtaposed the 3,400 terrorism deaths in this country over the past 30 years with the nearly million gun deaths before playing a long montage of Faux personalities worshiping the right to bear arms.

Yes, it turns out there’s only one amendment in our constitution’s pantheon that is exempt from statistical analysis or emotional freak-out-itude, and it is the second. So god help us if the Muslims ever decide to form a well regulated militia.

In a Faux News world, a bombing means the end of our rights.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NFTOS!

NFTOS 3 YEAR STATS

Just amazing, since 2010 we have had 41,515,549 million visitors to NFTOS.

Now three years into this, I am not sure how much longer we do this.

I started NFTOS because I was seeing two things that pissed me off greatly, one was a bunch of pasty white racist attacking my President - two, the shift from the GOP, from true conservatism to the now radical American Taliban. Our intent is/was to give factual information to the big bang stories of the moment.

I have heard from many of these 41.5 million viewers, some assholes, most great caring Americans. [Guess who the assholes where?]

While I am on the fence whether to continue with NFTOS, re-align it, or hand it down to the next fired up progressive, I can assure my readers that I have enjoyed the experience immensely! I have learned many things, things about my country, people who call themselves "patriots", and those whom claim "Christianity"! The latter two I find many who talk the talk, but those whom shall never walk the walk!

To all our loyal readers, and to the drive by readers, we thank you very much for making our site a part of your reading day!

So cheers to NFTOS on our third anniversary!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

IF YOU DON'T COUNT WHAT HE DID IN OFFICE, GEORGE W. BUSH WAS A GREAT PRESIDENT

G.W. BUSH GETS A LIBRARY?

The five living presidents will meet in Texas on Thursday to dedicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. And while Bush and his aides are using the occasion to soften the 43 president’s image and solidify his legacy, a recounting of Bush-era policies — from his deregulation of Wall Street to the invasion of Iraq — greatly undermine the new rosy narrative of the Bush years:

Authorized the use of torture:

Though the US Code bans torture, Bush personally issued a memorandum six days after the September 11th attacks instructing the CIA that it could use “enhanced interrogation techniques” against suspected terrorists. The methods included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and “stress positions.” A recently-released bipartisan committee concluded it was “indisputable” that these techniques constituted torture, and that the highest authorities in the country bore responsibility for the creation of a torture programs at Guantanamo Bay and CIA “black sites” around the world.

Politicized climate science:

Bush’s “do-nothing” approach to climate change prevented the U.S. from pursuing meaningful action. Though he claimed that global warming was a serious problem that was either a natural phenomenon or caused by humans, the administration routinely edited scientific reports to downplay the threat of climate change, censored CDC testimony that climate change was a public health threat, and promoted climate denying studies financed by Exxon Mobil. At the end of the Bush presidency, a top intelligence adviser warned the incoming president that climate change was a massive destabilizing national security threat that would lead to “Dust Bowl” conditions in the Southwest.


MADDOW BUSH LIBRARY




Ignored Afghanistan to launch a war in Iraq:

Rather than consolidating gains after the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Bush and his neoconservative allies pushed for removing Saddam Hussein from power, kicking off a war that led to one mistake after another. Ten years later, the war is estimated to have costt up to $6 trillion and resulted in the death of more than 100,000 Iraqis, 4,000 Americans and another 31,000 wounded. Meanwhile, Afghanistan saw a resurgence of the Taliban after Bush shifted resources to Iraq.


Botched the response to Hurricane Katrina:

Bush appointed Michael Brown — a man whose only real qualifications were political connections and a sting at the International Arabian Horse Association — to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003 and he preceded to undo everything the Clinton Administration had done to make FEMA functional, botching the response to 2004′s Hurricane Frances so badly as to prompt calls for his firing. But Bush kept Brown on board and, as a detailed timeline of the response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrates, neither man took the storm seriously until it was too late. Bush, who famously said “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” midway through the crisis, thus presided over the most deaths due to a single natural disaster in the United States since 1900.


JON STEWART PART 1

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Defunded stem cell research:

At the turn of the century there was perhaps no greater hope for finding cures to illnesses ranging from Alzheimer’s to diabetes than ongoing stem cell research. But months after taking office, Bush eliminated all federal funding for any new research involving stem cells, citing a religious objection to the use of embryos — even though the embryos in question were byproducts from couples undergoing in vitro fertilization and would have been destroyed by IVF clinics regardless. Twice more during his presidency, Bush vetoed legislation that would have restored funding.


Required Muslim men to register with the government:

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Bush’s Attorney General, John Ashcroft, instituted an anti-terrorism program to register all male immigrants between 18 and 40 years old from 20 Arab and South Asian countries. Thousands of innocent men came forward to register, only to be rounded up for minor visa violations. Roughly 1,000 men and boys in the process of applying for permanent residence were arrested and confined in standing-room-only centers, enduring invasive strip searches and beatings by guards. Many were deported, while others were held for months after their immigration cases were resolved, without a shred of evidence they had any links to terrorism.


JON STEWART PART 2

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Reinstated the global gag rule:

On Bush’s first day in office he reinstated a rule that prevented any non-profit doing work overseas from using any of their own, private money to fund family planning services. This so-called “Global Gag Rule” posed a serious threat to international maternal health, but it also cut off funding for HIV/AIDS initiatives, child health programs, and water and sanitation efforts.

Supported anti-gay discrimination:

In 2004, President Bush endorsed the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), which would have banned same-sex couples from marrying in the U.S. Constitution. The Massachusetts Supreme Court had just ruled in favor of marriage equality, and Bush hoped to block the ruling from taking effect because “a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization.” Though the FMA failed numerous times in Congress during Bush’s tenure, he exploited the issue of same-sex marriage to turn out conservative voters for the 2004 election. That year, 11 states added constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriage.

Further deregulated Wall Street:

Under Bush, federal agencies eliminated regulations on predatory lending, capital requirements, and other Wall Street practices, allowing banks to engage in riskier and more destructive practices that contributed to the financial crisis that started on his watch. Bush’s Treasury Department also pushed for even further deregulation that would have given Wall Street more oversight over its own practices even after the housing collapse had begun.

Widened income inequality:

The per-person benefits of Bush’s tax cuts accrued to the top one percent of Americans, as the rate for capital gains dropped to 15 percent. The CBO found that federal income taxes dropped far more as a percentage of the one percent’s income than for any other group after 2000.

Undermined worker protections:

Under Bush, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, whose mission is to protect safe working conditions, issued 86 percent fewer rules or regulations and pulled 22 items from its agenda of proposed safety and health rules. The office’s funding and staff were also consistently reduced. Meanwhile, funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency charged with helping workers who claim discrimination against their employers, was similarly low and staffing fell even as the number of complaints increased, leading to a rising backlog of cases.

Ideological court appointments:

Bush filled the federal bench with ideologues, including two lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. These conservatives believe that corporations should be able to buy and sell elections, ruled against equal pay for equal work, and have sought to undermine a woman’s right to choose.

Presided over a dysfunctional executive branch:

A 2008 analysis by the Center for Public Integrity documented more than 125 executive branch failures over Bush’s two terms. These included government breakdowns on “education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety,” and others. “I think we’ll look back on this period as one of the most destructive periods in American public life . . . both in terms of policy and process,” Thomas E. Mann, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution observed, noting “genuine distortion in the constitutional system, an exaggerated sense of presidential power and prerogative and acquiescence by a Republican Congress in the face of the first unified Republican government since Dwight Eisenhower.”

Barbara Bush said yesterday that she thinks there have been enough Bush's in the White House, while I couldn't agree more, why didn't she say this 2000?



NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Rachel Maddow opened her show last night taking on the conspiracy theories coming out of the woodwork to claim the Boston Marathon bombing was an inside job by the U.S. government designed to strip Americans of their liberties. Ordinarily fringe conspiracists wouldn't be worth giving credence to, but Maddow noticed how the conspiracies and those pushing the conspiracies are being embraced by elements of conservative media, including one of the most influential sites on the internet. Maddow argued that influential conservative media now are just abandoning all pretense and “full-on embracing the conspiracy theorists.”


MADDOW 




Maddow brought up the false flag, government destruction theories being pushed by InfoWars and its star figure, Alex Jones. You remember Alex Jones, the crazy guy who went ballistic on Piers Morgan? Well, he’s been out in full force again, but this time it’s coupled with an endorsement by none other than Matt Drudge.

Let it be clear readers, the asshat named Drudge; as Maddow says, "Drudge isn't just some fringe guy, he’s in charge of perhaps the most influential conservative website on the internet."

With regards to Alex Jones, he is clearly off his rocker, having written about this douche bag numerous times, he is the guy who bashes his country in one breath and in the next is the first when in a situation - to have his testicle tucked under his posterior hiding behind the government he despise so much. [See Maddow's clip of Jones touting a bizarre NASA conspiracy involving multitudes of dead astronauts.]

But the madness is not just limited to Jones, and Maddow showed off the ramblings of one teapublican New Hampshire state representative who posted a link to Jones’ conspiracy on Glenn Beck‘s Facebook page. This is an elected official who thinks it’s worth asking if the government bombed Boston.

Glenn Beckistan is barely a step up from Alex Jones, and Faux News -  just a tick mark above Beckistan,  all of their fans are the same sort of preppers and doomers - the unlettered dimwits that we all have come to know and love and see on Faux News on a daily basis.

If this wasn't enough, four teapublican congressmen wrote a letter to Homeland Security to request they investigate what basically amounts to another conspiracy theory. The American Taliban [GOP] has always coddled this ideal, but now it’s slowly seeping into more mainstream outlets. The American Taliban embraces conspiracy theories like a crack head does crack.

Faux News is no angel in this process, and while I wish I could say they have taken the right-wing nut jobs to a new low - but we need to realize that nothing is beneath these unlettered sociopaths, nor is there anything beyond their pale.

Matt Drudge, Alex Jones, Glenn Beck and Fox News, you are today's asshats of the day.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

SMART ASSED TENNESSEE HILLBILLY MOCKS FEINSTEINS GUN LAW

Tenn. State Senator's [Stacey Campfield]  poor judgement in humor

Tennessee State Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) took to his personal blog Sunday to mock U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), suggesting that she and other reformers should now be focusing on a ban on pressure cookers. And when criticized for his insensitivity to the Boston Marathon victims, Campfield doubled-down on the claims, crying “double standard.”

Campfield’s original post featured a photo of a pressure cooker, similar to that used by the Boston Marathon bombers, and the title “assault pressure cooker.” Campfield captioned the post, “Here comes Feinstein again.”

In a Monday follow-up, titled “Inappropriate? Me? Never.” Campfield wrote:

Really? If my post was inappropriate talking about “crock pot control” then where is the outrage from the left when they push for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting? Im sorry if I exposed your double standard…. Well, not really.

Campfield has a long history of questionable comments and actions. Earlier this month, he proposed cutting welfare benefits for kids with poor grades and attacked an eight-year-old critic as a “prop.” Last January, he falsely claimed that HIV/AIDS came from the LGBT community, citing a 1988 advice column from a Christian apologetic website. He also authored Tennessee’s odious “Don’t Say Gay” bill, compared homosexuality to “shooting heroin, ”threatened to reduce funding for the University of Tennessee over their sex education week programming, and was a plaintiff in a 2009 “birther” lawsuit demanding President Obama’s birth certificate. 

Tennessee State Sen. Stacey Campfield, American Taliban douche bag extraordinaire, you are today's worst person in the world!

Blog credit to thinkprogress.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

SEE WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT HERE?

West, Texas explosion aftermath

The death toll and injury count in the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion that took place last Wednesday continues to rise, with 35-40 dead and 60 still unaccounted for. Recovering from the disaster will likely take a lot of time and resources, and President Obama has already pledged federal assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other agencies.

Some Texas Congressmen have also requested aid to help the victims and the town rebuild. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he is “working to ensure that all available resources are marshaled to deal with the horrific loss of life and suffering that we've seen.” Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX) has said that he, plus Senators Cruz and John Cornyn (R-TX), are working with Congressional leaders to extend necessary assistance. Cornyn has also said there is funding under his subcommittee for chemical site security standards and infrastructure protection.

Yet when Northeast cities needed disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a storm that killed hundreds, all three Congressmen voted against the aid package:

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz lambasted the Sandy Aid package, voting against the measure in January. Cruz issued a statement explaining that he voted against the aid because it included a number of spending measures that were not related to disaster relief, including “Smithsonian repairs, upgrades to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration airplanes, and more funding for Head Start.”

After Flores voted against the Sandy aid package, he justified his vote by saying the package was “too large” and did “more than meet the immediate needs of Sandy victims.”

On top of seeking funding for West, Texas, John Cornyn has also requested drought relief and disaster aid for wildfires in the past.

Funding would have also been useful in preventing the blast in the first place. The plant has been victim of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) under-funding  as it hadn't been inspected since 1985. Yet Flores voted for the 2011 House Republican budget, which would have reduced OSHA by $99 million, and also voted to pass the Budget Control Act, which has also decreased funding for OSHA’s inspections.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

SENATOR JEFF FLAKE IS BOTH DISGUSTING AND DISPICABLE

Jeff Flake GOP Douche Bag

Shortly before the a crucial Senate vote to expand background checks in gun transactions, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) sent a letter to the mother of a shooting victim claiming that he was “truly sorry” for her son’s death and that “strengthening background checks is something we agree on.” A few days later, he voted to kill the background checks bill.

Caren Teves’ son Alex died during the Aurora theater mass shooting while shielding his girlfriend from the gun man’s bullets. She wrote a letter to Sen. Flake, in which she “invited him to our home to sit in our son’s chair, his empty chair” and “feel the emptiness and have dinner with us and discuss” guns. In response, Flake sent Teves a hand-written letter claiming that he supported one of the most important steps Congress could take to improve gun safety — expanding background checks:

Just days after raising Teves’ hopes that the Senate would act to prevent future mothers from experiencing the same pain inflicted upon her family, Flake voted against background checks. Flake claimed to oppose the bill because it “would expand background checks far beyond commercial sales to include almost all private transfers — including between friends and neighbors,” but this claim is false. As Mark Kelly, husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) lamented after seeing Flake’s explanation, “it appears he hasn’t read the bill.”

Senator Jeff Flake, you are today's worst person in the world!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

A HERO AMONGST EVIL

CARLOS ARREDONDO SAVING JEFF BAUMAN'S LIFE

The man in the cowboy hat in this photo's name is Carlos Arredondo. Carlos was at the Boston Marathon with his wife handing out American flags to runners.

Carlos' past is a sad one, he lost a son to a sniper bullet in Iraq in 2004, and a second son to suicide a few years later - and a depression triggered by the death of his brother. Carlos now spends a significant amount of his time on peace activism and working with vets coming home from war and was at the Marathon to hand out flags and inspire people.




Carlos has never had any medical training, but when the blast went off, he ran towards the danger, jumped fences and found the now-famous man in the wheelchair on the ground, both his legs blown off, suffering from severe shock and critical wounds. Carlos got the bomb victim into a wheelchair, pinched the man's artery - closed with two of his fingers (you can see him doing so in the photo).

Because of Carlos, this man is alive today, having had surgery earlier this week to remove both of his legs.

Carlos Arredondo is the epitome of heroism. This man who lost so much, still threw himself into the frenzy of evil and saved another humans life.

Carlos Arredondo, you are NFTOS' first ever, greatest America Hero!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

CHECHEN TERRORIST

CHECHEN TERRORIST HAVE AL QAEDA TIES

While no official link has been made between the two [Boston Marathon bombers and Chechen Terrorists], we educate our readers on the deadly group known as "Chechen Terrorists".The terror going on in Boston has some terrorist overtones [while some aspects of the plot seem methodical, some seem down right stupid, such as the after effects of their destruction, no money, no car, no escape plan]. Each breaking story in Boston - or the surrounding towns of Boston, now details a methodical plan to impose terror on America. While the story has yet to come to a climatic end - we at NFTOS expose the background of the evil group known as the "Chechen Terrorist".

What you need to know:

Chechens are an ethnic minority living primarily in Russia's North Caucasus region. For the past two hundred years, they have generally been governed by Moscow, though they have had varying degrees of de facto autonomy. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Chechen separatists launched a coordinated campaign for independence, which resulted in two devastating wars and an ongoing insurgency in Russia's republic of Chechnya. Militants in and around Chechnya continue to agitate for independence, though the death of separatist leader Shamil Basayev in July 2006 weakened the separatist movement. However, violence in the North Caucasus has escalated since 2008, and Moscow experienced its most serious attack in six years with the bombing of a metro station in March 2010.

Who are the Chechens?

The Chechens are a largely Muslim ethnic group that has lived for centuries in the mountainous North Caucasus region. For the past two hundred years, Chechens have resisted Russian rule. During World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin accused the Chechens of cooperating with the Nazis and forcibly deported the entire population to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Tens of thousands of Chechens died, and the survivors were allowed to return home only after Stalin's death.

Has Chechnya ever been independent?

Chechnya has experienced several brief periods of de facto independence. In January 1921, four years after the Russian Revolution, Chechnya joined Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, and Ingushetia to form the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. But the following year, the Soviet Union seized control of Chechnya and turned it into a Soviet province called the Chechen Autonomous Oblast. In January 1934, Soviet officials merged the Chechen Autonomous Oblast with the neighboring Ingush Autonomous Oblast, largely to dilute each region's ethnic identity.

During World War II, as German forces moved into the Soviet Union and toward the North Caucasus, many ethnic minority groups subject to Soviet and Russian rule for generations seized on the opportunity presented by the war to try and break free. German forces never reached Chechnya, but Chechen nationalist Khasan Israilov led a revolt against Soviet rule which lasted from 1940 to 1944. After Soviet troops crushed the rebellion, Stalin accused the Chechens of collaborating with Nazi invaders. In 1944, Stalin disbanded the Chechen-Ingush republic altogether and forcibly deported the entire Chechen population to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Chechens were not allowed to return to their homeland until 1957, when Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, restored the province amid de-Stalinization.

What is the post-Soviet history of violence in Chechnya?

In the early 1990s, following the Soviet collapse, separatists in the newly formed Russian Federation Republic of Chechnya started an independence movement called the Chechen All-National Congress. Russian President Boris Yeltsin opposed Chechen independence, arguing that Chechnya was an integral part of Russia. From 1994 to 1996, Russia fought Chechen guerillas in a conflict that became known as the First Chechen War. Tens of thousands of civilians died, but Russia failed to win control of Chechnya's mountainous terrain, giving Chechnya de facto independence. In May 1996, Yeltsin signed a ceasefire with the separatists, and they agreed on a peace treaty the following year.

But violence flared again three years later. In August 1999, Chechen militants invaded the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan to support a local separatist movement. The following month, five bombs exploded in Russia over a ten-day period, killing almost three hundred civilians. Moscow blamed Chechen rebels for the explosions, which comprised the largest coordinated terrorist attack in Russian history. The Dagestan invasion and the Russian bombings prompted Russian forces to launch the Second Chechen War, also known as the War in the North Caucasus. In February 2000, Russia recaptured the Chechen capital of Grozny, destroying a good part of the city center in the process, reasserting direct control over Chechnya. Tens of thousands of Chechens and Russians were killed or wounded in the two wars, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced. Since the end of the second war, Chechen separatist activity has diminished, and the July 2006 death of separatist leader Shamil Basayev--in an explosion many see as the work of Russia's internal security services--seems to have stifled the movement. Since 2008, however, violence has markedly increased in the North Caucasus, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Incidents of violence rose from 795 in 2008 to 1,100 in 2009, and suicide bombings quadrupled in 2009, the majority of which occurred in Chechnya.

Which terrorist groups operate in Chechnya?

Information about groups linked to the conflict in Chechnya is hard to confirm, but experts say the struggle is between local separatists--a loosely organized group with semi-independent commanders--and the Russian army. According to the U.S. State Department, the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB) is the primary channel for Islamic funding of the Chechen guerillas, in part through links to al-Qaeda-related financiers on the Arabian Peninsula. The United States also defined the Chechnya-based Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) and the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs as terrorist entities in February 2003.

Chechnya's long and violent guerrilla war has attracted a small number of Islamist militants from outside of Chechnya--some of whom are Arab fighters with possible links to al-Qaeda. Among the Islamist militants, the most prominent was Basayev, Russia's most wanted man. Basayev fought for Chechen independence for more than a decade, and was the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attacks on Russian soil. On July 10, 2006, Basayev was killed in an explosion in neighboring Ingushetia. His death cast doubt on the future of the Chechen separatist movement, and allegedly led to the surrender of five hundred militants. Four months later, Russian security forces killed Abu Hafs al-Urdani, the Jordanian-born commander of foreign fighters in Chechnya. Since then, violence in Chechnya has ebbed, though terrorism in the areas of Dagestan and Ingushetia has increased.

What major attacks are the Chechen groups responsible for?

The most notorious and devastating attack came in September 2004, when Basayev ordered an attack on a school in Beslan, a town in North Ossetia. More than three hundred people died in the three-day siege, most of them children. There were thirty-two militants, though only three or four were Chechens. All but one of the militants were reportedly killed during the siege. Since then, violence has generally targeted individual officials and government offices rather than large groups of civilians. Attacks include:

An August 1999 bombing of a shopping arcade and a September 1999 bombing of an apartment building in Moscow that killed sixty-four people. 

Two bombings in September 1999 in the Russian republic of Dagestan and southern Russian city of Volgodonsk. Controversy still surrounds whether these attacks were conclusively linked to Chechens. 

A bomb blast that killed at least forty-one people, including seventeen children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002. Russia blamed the attack on Chechen terrorists. 

The October 2002 seizure of Moscow's Dubrovka Theater, where approximately seven hundred people were attending a performance. Russian Special Forces launched a rescue operation, but the opium-derived gas they used to disable the hostage-takers killed more than 120 hostages, as well as many of the terrorists. Basayev took responsibility for organizing the attack, and three Chechen-affiliated groups are thought to have been involved. 

A December 2002 dual suicide bombing that attacked the headquarters of Chechnya's Russian-backed government in Grozny. Russian officials claim that international terrorists helped local Chechens mount the assault, which killed eighty-three people.A three-day attack on Ingushetia in June 2004, which killed almost one hundred people and injured another 120. 

Street fighting in October 2005 that killed at least eighty-five people. The fighting was in the south Russian city of Nalchik after Chechen rebels assaulted government buildings, telecommunications facilities, and the airport.

 An attack on the Nevsky Express, used by members of the business and political elite, in November 2009 killed twenty-seven people. 

In March 2010, two female suicide bombers detonated bombs in a Moscow metro station located near the headquarters of the security services, killing thirty-nine people. Islamist Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the bombing; he had also claimed responsibility for the derailment of the Nevsky Express.

 Two days after the metro station bombing in March 2010, two bombs exploded in the town of Kizlyar, in Russia's North Caucasus, killing at least twelve people.Are there links between Chechen groups and al-Qaeda?

Experts say there are several ties between the al-Qaeda network and Chechen groups. A Chechen warlord known as Khattab is said to have met with Osama bin Laden while both men were fighting the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Alexander Vershbow, a U.S. ambassador to Russia, said shortly after September 11, 2001, "We have long recognized that Osama bin Laden and other international networks have been fueling the flames in Chechnya, including the involvement of foreign commanders like Khattab." Khattab was killed in April 2002.

Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted for his involvement in the September 11 attacks, was reported by the Wall Street Journal to be formerly "a recruiter for al-Qaeda-backed rebels in Chechnya." Chechen militants reportedly fought alongside al-Qaeda and Taliban forces against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was one of the only governments to recognize Chechen independence.

FOOTNOTE: We at NFTOS are not in the business of scaring our readers. We are here to educate, so that you can make sensible, educated decisions. The importance of our mission in this instance is to explore the possible association to this very nasty group.

For those in the Boston area, heed the advice of the authorities, be vigilant, and most importantly, be safe!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

WANTED, DO YOU KNOW THESE TERRORISTS?

BREAKING NEWS:

In our efforts to catch the terrorist that bombed the Boston Marathon:

If you know these two men, their whereabouts, or any information pertaining to the Boston Marathon bombing, please contact the FBI

FBI VIDEO OF BOSTON BOMBINGS SUSPECTS






PHOTOS OF SUSPECT ONE AND TWO [Click photos for enlarged photos]

SUSPECT ONE AND TWO

SUSPECT ONE

SUSPECT ONE

SUSPECT ONE

SUSPECT TWO

SUSPECT TWO

SUSPECTS ONE AND TWO

SUSPECT TWO

SUSPECT TWO

SUSPECT TWO

SUSPECT ONE AND TWO

If you have any info, contact the FBI at www.fbi.gov, or call them at 1-800-225-5924. 

NFTOS

Editor-InChief

Roger West

PISSED OFF POTUS, SHAME ON YOU SENATE

NRA WINS OUT WITH COWARD-LESS SENATORS

THE VOTE




President Obama tore Congress a news posterior for voting down a background check amendment that the overwhelming majority of Americans support [90% of Americans support background checks]. Speaking at the White House Rose Garden as the Newtown families and former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords looked on, Obama stressed that he would continue to advocate for the measure, which fell four votes short of the 60-vote threshold:

“I’m going to speak plainly and honestly about what’s happened here because the American people are trying to figure out how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen.”

“This legislation, in fact, outlawed any registry. Plain and simple, right there in the text. But that didn’t matter. And unfortunately, this pattern of spreading untruths about this legislation served a purpose, because those lies upset an intense minority of gun owners, and that in turn intimidated a lot of senators.”

“But the fact is most of these senators could not offer any good reason why we wouldn’t want to make it harder for criminals and those with severe mental illnesses to buy a gun… It came down to politics — the worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections.”

“ I've heard some say that blocking this step would be a victory. And my question is, a victory for who? A victory for what? … It begs the question, who are we here to represent?”

“ I've heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced. ‘A prop,’ somebody called them. ‘Emotional blackmail,’ some outlet said. Are they serious? Do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don’t have a right to weigh in on this issue? Do we think their emotions, their loss is not relevant to this debate?

“So all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.”

“You need to let your representatives in Congress know that you are disappointed, and that if they don’t act this time, you will remember come election time.”

Here are the Senators who stood up for background checks, and here's who capitulated to the NRA.

CLICK PICTURE TO SEE THE COWARDS FULL SCREEN

Remember the coward-less douche-bags [in the right column of photo above] when it comes to the upcoming mid-terms elections. [It should be noted that majority leader Harry Reid's "nay" vote was a "procedural" process that was adhered to]. It's time to hold our law makers accountable, to ensure that they have our voice at the forefront, not the voice of slimy nasty beast that is the NRA!

Let it be clear readers, this denial of fundamental democracy - namely the voices of the American people themselves - by virtue of the American Taliban filibuster, should give pause to everyone, whether they were in favor of the background check initiative, or not. If a 90% plurality cannot effect changes in the law, then we have to concede that we are no longer living in a democracy.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

PHOTOS OF PACKAGE AND EXPLOSION AT BOSTON MARATHON

As of last night, there were three dead, 176 injured. Of the 176, 71 remain hospitalized, 24 in critical condition and of the critical at least two are confirmed to be children, one the sister of the boy who died - she has lost a leg.

Some have been trying to focus on the victims. But as information comes from both the officials and the world of social media some pieces are coming together - possibly.
The WHDH photos show what looks like a grocery shopping bag placed just outside of a barrier before and after what appears to be second the explosion. If this is the case it is surprising that no runners were seriously injured.

It is just haunting to see the innocent spectators in one image and then the carnage, the shoes, the blood, in the second.

If this is the bomb, it seems to different than the first explosion - the scene closest to the finish line across the street from the viewing stand full of VIPs. That explosion seemed to come from the inside the barrier, perhaps somewhere on the sidewalk.

And then there are the photographs released to agencies that show what appears to be a pressure cooker piece and an exploded backpack.

No official has confirmed that the bag in the WHDH photos actually contained a bomb. But if it did, could it have been just one person wearing a backpack and carrying a bag?

Suppose someone knows a friend, family member or neighbor who bought two pressure cookers lately? Do we tell someone? Is that typical? If I'd purchased two pressure cookers to can or whatever, I wouldn't mind a visit from the police or FBI.

As reported by WHDH, authorities have been asking anyone who was taking photos in the area, and not just photos of the explosion, but anytime before or after the explosions, to share the images with the FBI or local law enforcement:

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly appealed to the public to come forward with photos, videos or anything suspicious they might have seen or heard.

"The range of suspects and motives remains wide open," Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, said at a news conference. He vowed to "go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime."

BREAKING NFTOS NEWS: John  King of CNN is reporting that a significant breakthrough is about to come in the bombing case. King has been hinting that the FBI knows who they are looking for.

Stay tuned to NFTOS as addition news comes in.

NFTOS

STAFF

Letter to White House Flagged, Hart Building Evacuated

NFTOS BREAKING NEWS:

A letter addressed to President Obama containing a suspicious substance was intercepted Tuesday by authorities at a remote White House mail screening facility, according to the Secret Service.

The letter follows the discovery Tuesday of a ricin-laced letter sent to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

The federal court system failed the transparency test and underestimated projected costs with its five-year capital-projects plan, report finds.

This can't be the news South Carolina Republicans wanted to see weeks before special election.

Edwin Donovan, deputy assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service, did not identify the substance. However, he said the Secret Service is working closely with the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI.

The substance was detected at a facility run by the Secret Service, Donovan said.

Also breaking: The first floor of the Hart Senate building was evacuated over a suspicious package.

Senate police say they have a suspect in yesterday's ricin scare.

NFTOS

STAFF

RADICAL TEA BAGGER CLAIMS FALSE FLAG

In the wake of the latest terror event in our country, right-wing psychopath Alex Jones calls foul, or in the case "false flag".

While most observers are witholding judgment about what caused the two explosions at the Boston Marathon yesterday, right-wing conspiracy theorists already know what’s going on — the government did it and is going to pin the blame on them because today is Patriots’ Day, a special day in the militia movement.

Alex Jones, who has become the country’s preeminent conspiracy theorist, wasted no time. As with 9/11, Sandy Hook and other national tragedies, he sees the Boston explosions as a “false flag” attack committed by the government. The objective this time - Expanding the Transportation Security Administration’s reach to sporting events:

Jones then followed up on his tweet and expanded on his theories in a special webcast dedicated to the false flag conspiracy, claiming, "You saw them stage Fast and Furious. Folks, they staged Aurora, they staged Sandy Hook. The evidence is just overwhelming. And that's why I'm so desperate and freaked out. This is not fun, you know, getting up here telling you this. Somebody's got to tell you the truth."

Jones is well-known for pushing conspiracy scenarios. His rants and website have previously influenced right-wing dip-shit media figures like Faux News' Judge Napolitano and Lou Dobbs.

On his radio show, Jones speculated that it may have to do with the sudden drop in the price of gold, a favorite commodity of paranoids everywhere. “With gold plunging, what could this signify?” he asked rhetorically. He also noted that Boston has special significance in American history, and because it’s where one of the planes took off from on 9/11. “I said on air that they’re getting ready to blow something up. To fire a shot heard round the world like at Lexington and Concord, and then they do it at this same place on the same day!” he said.

ALEX JONES

I was trolling Breitbart.com last night. The comments there were incredulous. It's not hard to believe that these troglodytes really think Obama had a hand in this, but then again, these are the same people who think the earth is flat.

Alex Jones and Breitbart.com commenter's, you are today's worst humans in the world!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

POLL SHOWS VETS ON BOARD WITH GUN CONTROL

VETERANS ARE FOR STRICTER GUN LAWS

With accounts of accidental shooting deaths and injuries appearing almost daily, the question of irresponsible gun ownership is moving to the forefront of public discussion as the U.S. Congress continues to debate steps to reduce gun violence. A fascinating new poll by the Global Strategy Group for Vote Vets and the Center for American Progress Action Fund sheds some light on what veterans, those Americans intimately familiar with responsible gun ownership, think of the current state of gun laws in the United States. The short version: not much.

Only 7 percent of American veterans say they are very confident that those who have not served in the military take seriously the responsibilities that come with gun ownership (57 percent somewhat or very confident). By contrast, 46 percent of veterans say they are very confident that veterans in general take their gun ownership responsibilities seriously (92 percent somewhat or very confident):

Additionally, more than 8 in 10 veterans (85 percent) agree with the idea “that we can protect responsible gun owners’ Second Amendment rights while still making it more difficult for criminals and other dangerous people to obtain guns.” What do vets think about the gun violence reduction measures being discussed on Capitol Hill? Even though 50 percent of veterans self-identify as “conservative” in this poll, they are mostly all for them:

More than nine in 10 veterans (91 percent) support requiring a criminal background check of every person who wants to buy a firearm, including 74 percent who strongly support it.

Nearly all veterans (99 percent) support increasing criminal penalties for people convicted of illegally trafficking guns to criminals, including 91% who strongly support it.

More than six in 10 veterans (61 percent) support banning high-capacity ammunition magazines, including 45 percent who strongly support it.

Nearly six in 10 veterans (58 percent) support banning assault-style weapons, including 40 percent who strongly support it.

The message from America’s veterans is clear — other Americans need to take more responsibility with their guns and sensible gun measures are consistent with our constitutional rights.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER