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Syria Summit Kicks Off In Russia With Some Anti-Saudi Trolling

While in Sochi, Russia for trilateral talks between Russia, Iran, and Turkey over the future of Syria, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has taken to Twitter for some serious trolling. As the first day of the summit concluded - a day preceded by a rare 4-hour visit to Russia by Syrian President Bashar Assad who met with Putin on Monday - Zarif stated, "No need for empty words or gimmicks - including glowing orbs - when you're actually working for peace and against terror."

The Iranian FM was of course referring to the unforgettable photo op which lit up the internet from Trump's inaugural visit to Saudi Arabia last May wherein Trump along with Saudi King Salman and Egypt's Sisi laid their hands on a strange glowing orb upon the opening of something called the "Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology" (no one knows what the center has accomplished since then).

In the lead up to the summit, Zarif explained that the Iranian delegation headed by President Rouhani would be "working with Turkish & Russian counterparts to build on ceasefire we achieved in Syria & preparing for inclusive dialog among Syrians. Irony is KSA accuses Iran of destabilization, while itself fuels terrorists, wages war on Yemen, blockades Qatar & foments crisis in Lebanon."







And the other irony is that along with the continuing war of words between the Iranians and Saudis, parallel summits are happening at the same time over Syria. On Wednesday a Syrian opposition conference kicked off in Riyadh which aims to unite fragmented opposition groups ahead of next week's UN-backed Syria talks in Geneva next week.

But statements from Sochi appeared more triumphant, with a many analysts and media pundits interpreting the ongoing summit between presidents Putin, Erdogan, and Rouhani, as a victory lap of sorts which will involve discussion of the fate of post-war Syria, driven by the victorious Russians and Iranians with reluctant Erdogan in tow, perhaps clawing for the geopolitical scraps.

And the Russian embassy in the UK decided to take the opportunity to rub it in, with the following tweet:

Russian Embassy, UK‏Verified account @RussianEmbassy

Why so jealous, @thetimes? Britain could join Russia on the right side of history.

words during his brief surprise meeting with Assad on Monday, however, were more restrained: "We still have a long way to go before we achieve a complete victory over terrorists," he said. "But as far as our joint work in fighting terrorism on the territory of Syria is concerned, this military operation is indeed wrapping up."

Assad responded in comments to Russian state television after the meeting: "At this stage, especially after we achieved victory over terrorists, it is in our interests to move forward with the political process." And during Tuesday's hour plus phone call between Trump and Putin, the Russian president reportedly assured Trump that the “Syrian leader confirmed adherence to the political process, to run a constitutional reform” and presidential and parliamentary elections.

On Wednesday, upon the opening of the trilateral Sochi summit, Putin confidently announced that, "Russia, Iran and Turkey have prevented a break-up of Syria, kept it from being overrun by international terrorists and warded off a humanitarian catastrophe." And contrary to some speculation that Russia may eventually accept the breakup of Syria into different spheres of influence, Putin expressed hope that decisions reached at the summit would help "strengthen the territorial integrity of Syria."

He further reiterated commitment to constitutional reform in Syria and compromise among world powers currently operating there: “The Syrian people will have to determine their own future and agree on the principles of their own statehood. It is obvious that the process of reform will not be easy and will require compromises and concessions from all participants, including of course the government of Syria” Putin said Wednesday.

The controversial topic of reconstruction in Syria will also be under consideration at the summit, as Putin urged Turkey and Iran to join in the efforts. “Given the colossal scale of the destruction it would be possible to think together about the development of a comprehensive program for Syria,” he said.

In the past half-year Turkey has come under the Russian orbit in Syria after Erdogan's early aggressive pursuit of regime change backfired which left him fighting for his political future and increasingly at odds with the United States and NATO. Turkey's very presence at the summit is hugely significant, while at the same time both the US and EU have been sidelined.

The summit further aims to lay the groundwork for a Syrian national dialogue congress due to be hosted by Russia in December. It is possible that an entirely new constitution, including terms of future presidential elections (likely to include Assad running), will be framed during that future meeting involving members of the political opposition.

But it's concerning the terms of this December Russian-sponsored meeting that Erdogan will seek to assert himself at Sochi: he is insisting that Syrian Kurds be excluded from the negotiating table on the grounds that they have links to the PKK and other Kurdish movements that Turkey labels as terrorists. However, it is unlikely that a lasting political settlement for Syria can be negotiated and successfully held without Syrian Kurdish input.

So it looks like things are moving forward concerning political settlement and future stability for Syria, entirely without direct US or European involvement or input.

Credit to Zero Hedge

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Secret Code Is Recording Every Keystroke You Make On More Than 400 Of The Most Popular Websites On The Internet

If someone secretly installed software on your computer that recorded every single keystroke that you made, would you be alarmed?  Of course you would be, and that is essentially what is taking place on more than 400 of the most popular websites on the entire Internet.  For a long time we have known that nothing that we do on the Internet is private, but this new revelation is deeply, deeply disturbing.  In my novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End”, I attempted to portray the “Big Brother” surveillance grid which is constantly evolving all around us, but even I didn’t know that things were quite this bad.  According to an article that was just published by Ars Technica, when you visit the websites that have installed this secret surveillance code, it is like someday is literally “looking over your shoulder”…

If you have the uncomfortable sense someone is looking over your shoulder as you surf the Web, you’re not being paranoid. A new study finds hundreds of sites—including microsoft.com, adobe.com, and godaddy.com—employ scripts that record visitors’ keystrokes, mouse movements, and scrolling behavior in real time, even before the input is submitted or is later deleted.

Go back and read that again.

Do you understand what that means?

Even if you ultimately decide not to post something, these websites already know what you were typing, where you clicked and how you were moving your mouse.

Essentially, it is like someone is literally sitting behind you and watching every single thing that you do on that website.  The following comes from the Daily Mail…

In a blog post revealing the findings, Steven Englehardt, a PhD candidate at Princeton, said: ‘Unlike typical analytics services that provide aggregate statistics, these scripts are intended for the recording and playback of individual browsing sessions, as if someone is looking over your shoulder.

This is fundamentally wrong, and if I am elected to Congress I am going to fight like mad for our privacy rights on the Internet.  Nobody should be allowed to literally monitor our keystrokes, but according to a brand new study that has just been released, 482 of the largest websites in the entire world are doing this…

A study published last week reported that 482 of the 50,000 most trafficked websites employ such scripts, usually with no clear disclosure. It’s not always easy to detect sites that employ such scripts. The actual number is almost certainly much higher, particularly among sites outside the top 50,000 that were studied.

“Collection of page content by third-party replay scripts may cause sensitive information, such as medical conditions, credit card details, and other personal information displayed on a page, to leak to the third-party as part of the recording,” Steven Englehardt, a PhD candidate at Princeton University, wrote. “This may expose users to identity theft, online scams, and other unwanted behavior. The same is true for the collection of user inputs during checkout and registration processes.”

I am calling on every website that is using this sort of code to cease and desist immediately.  This is a gross violation of our privacy, and Congress needs to pass legislation protecting the American people immediately.

And of course it isn’t just the Internet where are privacy rights are being greatly violated.  The CIA has developed software that can remotely turn on the cameras and microphones on our phones whenever they want, and they can also use our phones as GPS locators to track us wherever we go…

CIA-created malware can penetrate and then control the operating systems for both Android and iPhone phones, allege the documents. This software would allow the agency to see the user’s location, copy and transmit audio and text from the phone and covertly turn on the phone’s camera and microphone and then send the resulting images or sound files to the agency.

So just like the Internet, nothing that you do on your phone is ever truly private.

And would you be shocked to learn that our televisions can be used to spy on us as well?

Incredibly, they can even be used to monitor us when they appear to be turned off…

A program dubbed “Weeping Angel” after an episode of the popular British TV science fiction series “Dr. Who,” can set a Samsung smart TV into a fake “off” mode to fool the consumer into thinking the TV isn’t recording room sounds when it still is. The conversations are then sent out via the user’s server. The program was developed in conjunction with MI5, the British FBI equivalent of a domestic counterintelligence and security agency, according to the WikiLeaks documents.

We are rapidly getting to the point where nothing will ever be truly private in our society ever again.

Virtually everything that we do is constantly being watched, tracked, monitored and recorded, and with each passing day our level of privacy is being eroded just a little bit more.

If you don’t want your children to grow up in a world where “Big Brother” is omnipresent, now is the time to stand up and fight.  We can put limits on technology and start reclaiming our privacy, but that is only going to happen if we all work together.

Credit to Economic Collapse

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