Saturday, April 14, 2018

With Syria's chemical weapons factory and other facilities disabled, the UN should receive reassurances to bring inspectors into the area.

The recent attacks were carried out by allies that stated they had validated the facts of the attacks. The inspectors need to validate, on the ground, that all chemical weapons capacity of Syria is ended.

If possible, humanitarian workers should be provided access to the people in areas most in need of help. The workers, their supplies and distribution need to have reassurances to their safety.

April 10, 2018
By Tracy Wilkerson

A team of international inspectors (click here) on Tuesday accepted an invitation from Syria to examine the site of a suspected chemical attack on civilians in a rebel-held enclave outside Damascus.

The U.S. and other world powers suspect Syrian government forces of being behind the attack, which reportedly killed nearly 50 people, including children. They blame Russia for helping Syria.

But both Syria and Russia insist the attack did not happen and that graphic photographs of the victims were staged.

Hoping to back its position, Syria said members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons would be allowed access to the site. The autonomous, intergovernmental group, which is based at The Hague, Netherlands, said in a statement it would dispatch a fact-finding team to Syria “shortly.”

Having international inspectors on the ground in Syria could complicate any forthcoming plans by the Trump administration to bomb or otherwise retaliate against the government of President Bashar Assad.

The same group has been attacked twice by unknown hostile groups while on missions to sites of suspected chemical attacks in Syria....

This is good news for the people of Syria.

Certainly, Russia and Syria remember the agreement about Syria's chemical weapons during it's civil war.

Dated 14 September 2013.

France, Great Britain and the USA were within international law to act in ending the Assad chemical weapons' program. Today is a good day for the international community and it's continued concern for the people of Syria.

When Israel acted initially, it was within international law as well. The Syrian people are not far from concern by others in the world. The killing needs to end and talks are needed to stabilize the region.

April 14, 2018

In a largely uncontested attack, (click here) U.S., British and French forces unleashed 105 missiles on three Syrian chemical weapons facilities early Saturday, leveling at least one building and setting back the country's chemical weapons program "for years," Pentagon officials said.

The strikes targeted three areas of Syria: a scientific research center near Damascus, a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs and a storage facility and command post near Homs.

Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, told reporters Saturday that the weapons used in the operation were a mix of sea and air-launched missiles fired by U.S., British and French forces and “successfully hit every target.”

The goal, he said, was to hit the "very heart" of Syria's chemical weapons program by targeting its research, development and storage facilities. The strikes come one week after reports of a grisly chemical attack in the town of Douma that killed more than 40 people.   

"This is going to set the Syrian chemical weapons program back for years," McKenzie said....     

Everyone looks forward to the investigation, but, Palestinians need to be living through their work as well.

April 14, 2018
By Jack Khoury

The Palestinian Health Ministry (click here) reported on Saturday that at least four Palestinians were killed by Israeli army fire in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is investigating the possibility that the shooting incident was a work accident.

According to initial reports, the incident occurred east of Rafah.

The report adds that emergency services are still active on the ground, attending to the wounded.

On Friday, one Palestinian was killed and 233 were wouned by live israeli fire as more than 10,000 protested along the Israel-Gaza border, burning tires and Israeli flags, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

According to the Israeli army, protests were held at five different sites along the border.

The Health Ministry in Gaza identified the Palestinian killed in the protest as Asalam Saudi Hasralla, 28. Overall, 969 Palestinians were wounded in Friday's protest, with 233 wounded by live fire and 419 evacuated to the hospital. Of those wounded, 20 were women and 67 were under age 18. Thirteen Palestinians were wounded by rubber-tipped bullets. The ministry noted that the number of protesters was lower than last week.

The IDF should have been there to protect the peaceful, unarmed protesters from any extremists, either Palestinian or Israeli, that would do anyone harm. The deaths at the border are outrageous and need to be investigated. Those people were not armed. Representatives from the protest should be meeting with President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Thank you to Mr. Khoury for his diligence and Haartz in fact finding. Facts in any reporting are very important to Israel as well as Palestine. It is my opinion Haartz attempts to bring all facts and opinion to the public. I've never thought of them as biased or one sided. They are not the government. I am fairly confident if representatives from the demonstrators wanted to present their point of view, Haaretz and other western newspapers would welcome their voices.

If the circumstances need anything it is sunshine, facts and strong advocacy for peace and accountability. This was Gaza. It is more isolated than most other places on Earth. This should never happen again. It should not have occurred this time. The border was notified with plenty of time for talks and an understanding. This is a tragedy for a real attempt at recognition by so many young Palestinians.

Nestles is getting free water while Flint is no longer receiving bottled water. Wow. There is no morality in Snyder's administration.

Silicon Valley comes to Flint.

The housing cost of living in Silicon Valley could be diluted with the exportation of their technology to areas in the country without economic upturns. Flint, Michigan is one of those places on the map where investment makes sense.

April 13, 2018
By Seung Lee

Congressman Ro Khanna speaks from his office in Santa Clara, Calif., about issues facing Silicon Valley, Monday, March 12, 2018.

...The export of technology jobs and knowledge (click here) to the Rust Belt and other parts of the country will not only revive the economically depressed regions but also relieve the Bay Area of its housing and traffic woes, Khanna said.

“I think we can have distributed networks of jobs, where these jobs don’t all have to be concentrated just here,” he said. “The digital devices have allowed people to shop, communicate and find entertainment in different ways. But the challenge is how are we going to allow people to earn a living in different ways as well.”

Having grown up on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Khanna constantly has the Rust Belt in mind. In February, he organized a tour with several Bay Area-based venture capitalists in a multi-city bus tour through Flint, Michigan; South Bend, Indiana; and Youngstown and Akron, Ohio, to encourage new tech incubators in these cities.

Khanna, who worked with Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio to set up the tour, believes that these cities can become niche hubs of technology based on their existing strengths. For example, Akron and its nearby metropolis Cleveland can focus on health care technology because of its large health care infrastructure.

Khanna said the trip was productive, with one Flint-based startup incubator receiving $100,000 in funding, and may pave a way for Silicon Valley to want to invest in the future. Venture capitalists who joined the trip shared the same optimism....

...“I don’t see any downsides,” said Derek Sommer, founder of a Flint-based custom software company called SPUD Software. Sommer said he met with the venture capitalists when they were in town. “It’s a great market to tap. We do have the brains, the energy and the drive here, and we need that financial backing to take it to that next step. It’s a lot tighter community here than what I imagine in the Bay Area.”

Paul Knific doesn’t need to imagine. Knific, a Flint native, moved to the Bay Area for a few months for an internship in Sunnyvale. He grew homesick and experienced a culture shock living in a dense urban metropolis, where people commute to work in packed trains, not by pickup trucks.

Knific now runs a company that uses information technology to help sell fresh fruits and vegetables in Flint, a city still reeling from a water crisis in which more than 100,000 residents were exposed to high levels of lead.

“One way to combat poisoned water is providing nutritious food,” said Knific, who also attended the meeting with Bay Area venture capitalists. “The way we build companies is different here. Our companies don’t burn through a lot of cash. We have low overhead and we find a customer fit. We will use resources from California to scale up.”...