There's no other information pertaining to this new 'whistleblower' other than the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/1180839570839101443
More details on what Turkey is doing in Northern Syria from Israels' perspective.
TURKEY RE-WRITES INTERNATIONAL LAW WITH “SAFE ZONE” INVASION DOCTRINE
The Jerusalem Post said:Turkey has re-written the rules of international law in Syria, declaring that when there is a presence of what it views as a “terrorist organization,” it has a right to invade and create a “safe zone” or “peace corridor” along the border. Other countries including India, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Egypt may take note and begin to study Ankara’s doctrine that has wide implications for international affairs.
In international relations, countries generally enjoy a right to self-defense. This is enshrined in various international laws, precedent and treaty law. The UN Charter, for instance, argues in Article 2 that “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” Article 51 notes that nothing in the charter “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense.”Ankara re-written these norms, arguing that when a country has designated an organization a “terrorist group” that it will have a right to invade the neighboring country and set up a “safe zone” along the border. This doesn’t require Ankara to present any evidence that there was a threat or attacks from northern Syria. Turkey simply took over Jarabulus and Afrin in 2016 and 2018 respectively. Now Turkey says it has a right to take over eastern Syria, redraw property lines and international borders, and settle one million Syrian refugees there, creating hundreds of towns regardless of the local population’s views.This is a new step in international law, one which has broad implications. Israel’s conquest in 1967 of the West Bank and Golan Heights have generally been seen as illegal under international law. But Israel may now argue it is setting up a “safe zone.” This could also be Israel’s argument for distancing Hezbollah from the Lebanese border.Wider ramifications mean that India can now argue that it needs a safe zone in Pakistan to keep extremists away from parts of the border of Kashmir. Pakistan may need to take over parts of Afghanistan to create Turkey-style safe zones. Russia can say that its role in eastern Ukraine is a “safe zone” or peace corridor. Saudi Arabia now likely needs a safe zone in Yemen. The number of safe zones that can be created on the Turkish model may be endless. Many porous borders across the Sahel in Africa mean that various countries may need to set up safe zones in the territory of their neighbor.
Turkey has paved the way for a new international legal concept of “safe zone” and “peace corridor.” NATO already appears to accept Turkey’s demand for security as a pretext to take over Afrin. The US has already created a “security mechanism” for Turkey to conduct patrols in eastern Syria because of its “concerns,” giving Turkey the opportunity to demand more. Turkey has already done this in norther Iraq as well. The silence of the international community after Afrin seems to affirm Ankara’s “right to invade” wherever it deems it necessary.Most countries that have territorial disputes can now look to Ankara as a beacon. Whether in the Balkans or Caucuses, central Asia and beyond, the ‘safe zone’ concept as articulated by Turkey should be seen as a precedent in international forums for the “right to invade.” This concept means self-defense is no-longer a necessary pretext. No longer do countries need to refrain from the “threat” to use force. The US and other countries, in presenting the doctrine of preemption, have already eroded this concept, but now countries may be on the cusp of a new era after almost 75 years of one concept under the UN charter. Of course, Damascus will object that its territory should be partitioned into various “safe zones,” one in the Golan Heights and four more in Idlib, Afrin, Jarabulus and along the northeast border.A corollary of the “safe zone” concept is also the argument that more powerful states can assert themselves across the borders of less powerful or more unstable states. Once again, this will give more powerful states in places like Africa the ability to exert themselves more forcefully if they can argue there are potential threats across the border of a neighboring state.
An imaginary conversation between Flyover-man and Urban-guy by David Brooks of the NYTimes. In it he portrays Urban guy as a dude who just wants a free equal america where the constitution is respected by the President and Flyover-man is someone who doesn't read into evidence and focuses on the 'big picture' instead of informing himself.
Why Trump Voters Stick With Him An imagined conversation with Flyover Man.
The New York Times said:Urban Guy: I hope you read the rough transcript of that Trump phone call with the Ukrainian president. Trump clearly used public power to ask a foreign leader to dig up dirt on his political opponent. This is impeachable. I don’t see how you can deny the facts in front of your face.
Flyover Man: I haven’t really had time to look into it. There’s always some fight between Trump and the East Coast media. I guess I just try to stay focused on the big picture.
The big picture is this: We knew this guy was a snake when we signed up. But he was the only one who saw us. He was the only one who saw that the America we love is being transformed in front of our eyes. Good jobs for hard-working people were gone. Our communities in tatters. Our kids in trouble. I had one shot at change, so I made a deal with the devil, and you’d have made it, too.
Nothing in this impeachment mess makes me rethink this bargain. If people like you are unable to acknowledge my dignity and see my problems, I’ll stay with Trump.
[The big debates, distilled. This guide will put in context what people are saying about the pressing issues of the week. Sign up for our new newsletter, Debatable.]
U.G.: The big picture? The big picture is the U.S. Constitution. It’s no man is above the law. We can’t live in a country in which our leaders flagrantly commit high crimes and nothing happens.
F.M.: I get it. He said some stupid crap on a phone call. But are you going to undo my vote for that? I wouldn’t even rank this among the top 25 worst things he’s done, and I’m a supporter of his!
Listen, do you remember those months just after the election when people like you were briefly curious about people like me? You sent your reporters out on wild safaris into the hinterlands to interview Trump voters. You read “Hillbilly Elegy.” Back then it was fashionable to say that Trump is just a symptom of real problems in America. He’s the wrong answer to the right question.
It didn’t take you long to lose interest in all that. Now we’re just a block of concrete you call “his base.” Now, all you care about is Trump, not his supporters or the issues driving us. Your whole media is Trump-O-Centric.
U.G.: We became Trump-O-Centric because his daily outrages undermine norms, spread xenophobia, degrade public morality.
F.M.: You think that because you have the kind of jobs that allow you to follow Twitter all day. I don’t have that luxury. So all that passing nonsense seems far away. I have to deal with the actual realities of life.
One, mass immigration is changing my town, region and state. Two, the cultural liberalism you preach but don’t practice is leading to the breakdown of families up and down my block. Children out of wedlock. Young men with no dad when they’re young and no wife in their life when they’re grown. Third, an Ivy League elite running government and the economy for itself and shutting out those of us who actually make things with our hands. Fourth, China is replacing us.
U.G.: I’m happy to talk about these big problems.
F.M.: Like hell you are. The media fixates on scandals because they’re easier to talk about than complex issues like why urban and rural America are drifting further apart. You wasted billions of hours speculating about the Mueller report, and now news about Adam Schiff overshadows everything else while my world burns. Let’s face it: Bashing Trump is the media’s business model. That’s what drives eyeballs and profit.
U.G.: We can’t have a productive conversation with Trump around. He lies with abandon. He slanders and insults. He pollutes the water near and far.
F.M.: We can’t have productive conversations if every time I open my mouth you call me a bigot. You may not realize this, but you have Trump supporters around you all the time. It’s just that we’ve learned to keep our mouths shut in your presence. The crushing climate of blue cultural privilege is too strangulating.
U.G.: O.K. I get it. You’re not the first person to spin the right-wing victim narrative in front of me. Why don’t we focus on impeachment? On rule of law.
F.M.: Fine. Bottom line: I would be open to impeachment if you cared about my problems. I’d be open if all those silent Republican dissenters in the Senate had given me some G.O.P. alternative candidate who speaks our language and addresses our issues. I’d be open if there was a moderate Democratic Party that I thought deserved a shot. But I only see Democrats who’d make everything worse: Open the border! Socialism! More power to Washington! You could have paid attention to the forces driving Trumpism, but you ignored us.
So please don’t ask us to sign up for our own obliteration or support your impeachment. This is about identity and pride.
Here’s a confession. I used to think Trump was a jerk. Now, after three years of battle, I see him as my captain. He deserves my loyalty, thick and thin.
See ya’ in hell, brother.
lmao cringiest shit ive ever read. both deserve to die
Kashmir is being completely overlooked in most of the West. Walls are closing in on the peoples' there and they are growing all the more desperate as a result. This is an extremely volatile region primed for conflict and is one of the most important geostrategic holdings in the world.
Pakistan: Marchers stopped short of Kashmir border
AA said:Pakistani authorities Sunday evening halted hundreds of Kashmiris belonging to a pro-independence group from approaching the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that divides disputed Kashmir between Pakistan and Indian.
The protesters gathered on Friday in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and by Sunday the "Freedom March" had reached the Jiskool area, located some 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the Line of Control.
There the local administration blocked the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar highway by placing containers and barbed wires, stopping the marchers from going forward.
The march was organized by the Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir chapter of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a group led by incarcerated pro-independence leader Yasin Malik.
"The administration has blocked the road and not allowed us toward the LoC," Rafiq Dar, the front’s spokesman, told Anadolu Agency over the phone
According to local media, the local administration told the marchers that they would not allow them any further as Indian forces could target them.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday warned against any “emotional” attempt by the people to cross the Line of Control, as any such attempt could hurt Kashmiris’ struggle.
Last month already frosty relations between Pakistan and India reached a new low after India scrapped special provisions allowing the state of Jammu and Kashmir semi-autonomy.
The state has been under a near-complete lockdown since Aug. 5.
Rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly called on India to lift restrictions and release political detainees.
Indian authorities claim that daytime restrictions have been lifted in 93% of the region, a claim Anadolu Agency could not verify independently.
From 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed special status under the Indian Constitution, which allowed it to enact its own laws.
The provisions also barred outsiders from settling in or owning land in the territory.
India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in part and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have fought two wars over Kashmir.
Centre ‘in the dark’ on Jammu and Kashmir detentions, restrictions
The Hindu said:The Home Ministry does not have information on any orders passed to block telecommunications and Internet, suspend radio and satellite television services, evacuate tourists and detain political leaders and activists in Jammu and Kashmir in August. The Ministry says it has no information on the names and locations of the detainees, and directed any queries to the State administration.
In response to a recent Right to Information request to share copies of such orders, directions or advisories, two Central public information officers of the Ministry’s J&K division said the information was not available with them.
The Ministry said, “The information might be available with the State government of J&K.”
However, the RTI application could not be forwarded to the J&K government as the RTI Act, 2005 is not applicable in the State, said the response.
According to it, a separate application could be filed under the State’s RTI law. This option is only available to the State’s residents.
A senior official in the J&K government said Central laws, including the RTI Act, 2005, would come into effect in J&K only when it became a Union Territory on October 31.
Venkatesh Nayak, the activist who filed the RTI request, noted that the State of J&K had been under President’s Rule since December 19, 2018 and how was it possible that the Home Ministry did not have information on orders imposing travel and telecom restrictions.
“All powers of the Governor and the State Legislature stand transferred to the President of India. The work of the State Government is being carried out under the guidance of the Central Government through the State’s Governor who has only babus to run the administration,” he said on October 6.
“Any order imposing curbs on travel and telecommunications will at least be copied to the Union Home Ministry in which the J&K Division is housed, if not actually directed by the MHA. So the CPIOs’ replies that they have no information about the curbs imposed and the arrests and detention of residents of J&K are not based on truth and reality,” he said on October 6.
Mr. Nayak filed his RTI application on August 30, almost a month after the shutdown of the State in preparation for the government’s announcement regarding the amendment of Article 370. Apart from copies of the relevant orders, he asked for the names of the political leaders and activists under detention or custody, the addresses where they are being held, and the law under which they were detained.
Turkey is moving more troops and equipment to its border with northern Syria, and the U.S. has announced they will not be taking part in the operation but will be moving troops back amid the potential invasion.
White House: US Armed Forces will not be part of Turkish operation in northern Syria
TASS said:WASHINGTON, October 7. /TASS/. Turkey will soon start a military operation in the northern Syria and the United States Armed Forces will not be involved in this operation, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
Her statement comes in the wake of a telephone call between US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria," the statement reads.
"The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS [the Islamic State terrorist organization outlawed in Russia] territorial 'Caliphate,' will no longer be in the immediate area," the statement added.
