Hillary Clinton talks climate change, wage equality in Boulder campaign stop

By Sarah Kuta

Hillary Clinton spoke to supporters in Boulder for just under an hour Tuesday morning in a wide-ranging speech that touched on climate change, early childhood education, college affordability, gun control and the economy.

After being introduced by a group of Democrats — Colorado House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis and former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall — the presidential hopeful took the stage at the Boulder Theater just after noon to address a crowd of about 1,000.

"It's always a treat to be in Boulder," Clinton told the crowd as she stood in front of American and Colorado flags, which flanked a blue "Fighting for us" campaign sign hanging at the back of the stage.

Hillary Clinton supporters lead a cheer during the Democratic presidential candidate's visit to the Boulder Theater on Tuesday. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

With a quick jab at Republican presidential hopefuls,("I want to start with a factual statement," she said to laughter and cheers), Clinton spoke about the economic challenges tackled by the two most recent Democratic presidents, her husband Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Despite praising their economic accomplishments, the former U.S. senator and secretary of state also made a point of setting herself apart from the two men.

"I'm not running for my husband's third term or President Obama's third term, I'm running for my first term, but I'm going to do what works for the economy," she said.

Clinton said her economic plan includes creating more jobs in infrastructure and renewable energy, and working to reduce some of the "red tape" faced by small business owners. She said she wants to change the tax code so that companies aren't moving overseas to save money, a tactic known as inversion.

She also spoke about raising the minimum wage and ensuring wage equality between men and women, an idea she sees as an economic growth strategy, not a women's rights issue.

"When I say I want equal pay for equal work, the Republicans often say, 'Well, there she goes playing the gender card,'" Clinton said. "Well, I'll tell you what, if equal pay for equal work is playing the gender card, deal me in."

Clinton's speech touched on her plans for paid family leave, a caregiver tax credit for people taking care of sick family members, universal pre-kindergarten education, free community college and other higher education affordability measures, bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse treatment and addressing climate change.

Clinton vowed to see 500 million solar panels installed before the end of her first term, calling climate change a "consequential, existential" challenge.

She spoke at length about her plans for addressing gun violence and her strategy for tackling ISIS and other terrorist groups abroad. In response to recent Republican opposition to admitting and resettling Syrian refugees, Clinton said America should continue to be "open and welcoming" at the end of a vetting process.

"I have heard all this loose, inflammatory talk about refugees and I don't think that does us any good at all in waging and winning the fight against these criminals and killers who misuse religion and promote a different set of values than the ones that we believe in," she said.

Hillary Clinton poses with Melanie Sawyer, a senior at Boulder's Fairview High School, during a campaign event at the Boulder Theater on Tuesday. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)

Campaign visits

After the public event, Clinton was scheduled to appear at a private fundraiser at the Boulder home of Jennifer and Mo Siegel, founder of Celestial Seasonings, and at Manual High School in Denver.At various points during her talk, the crowd erupted in cheers, especially at the end, when Clinton walked into the crowd to sign autographs and take pictures as Katy Perry's song "Roar" boomed over the speakers.

Clinton's visit marked the third Democratic presidential candidate to campaign in Boulder this year.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to some 9,000 people on the University of Colorado's campus on Oct. 10 and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley visited the campus Oct. 28, the same day that CU hosted 14 GOP presidential candidates in a debate presented by CNBC at the Coors Events Center.

Supporters in line

Standing outside in the crisp November air prior to Clinton's appearance, 17-year-old Melanie Sawyer was determined to be first in the door to see the woman she plans to vote for in her first election next year.

Sawyer, a senior at Fairview High School, showed up at the Boulder Theater at 7 a.m. in a puffy purple coat to ensure she'd see Clinton during her first public campaign event in Boulder.

"I'm just really interested in what she has to say," Sawyer said. "I want to hear from her directly. I've never been in close proximity of a presidential candidate."

Supporters ranged in age from 10 years old to 60, with many saying they've already decided they want to see Clinton in the White House after the 2016 election.

If she got the chance, Sarah Oro, 12, said she planned to ask Clinton a few tough questions. Chiefly, how would she make college more affordable for young people like her?

Oro, holding a handmade Clinton campaign sign, and her younger brother, 10-year-old Ryan, made the trek to Boulder from Littleton with their mother Cindy Robinson.

Ryan Oro said he's excited about Clinton's potential to be the first woman in the White House and that it was his idea to come to the Boulder campaign event.

"He's been watching the debates," Robinson said.

Video - President Obama and President Hollande Hold a Joint Press Conference

Video - Fact checking Donald Trump's 9/11 claims

A Definitive Debunking of Donald Trump’s 9/11 Claims

By JIM DWYER

How alarmed were New Jersey officials by reports of Muslims dancing in the streets of Jersey City and Paterson on Sept. 11, 2001, to celebrate the destruction of the World Trade Center? They feared riots would break out and were ready to send in the National Guard and the State Police to preserve order.But John J. Farmer Jr., then the New Jersey attorney general and the state’s chief law enforcement officer, said on Tuesday that he ordered an investigation that very day and found the reports to be bogus, more wild stories born in the stricken hours after the attacks.

Nevertheless, those ancient, false rumors were recycled as truth over the weekend by Donald J. Trump, who has folded them into his calls for the national registration of Muslims and possible closing of mosques. Speaking in Alabama, Mr. Trump said: “Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”

Reporters were unable to find any evidence for his story, but Mr. Trump stuck with it in a television interview on Sunday. “It did happen,” he said. “I saw it. It was on television.”Few people, if any, could address the circumstances more definitively than Mr. Farmer, who went on to serve as senior counsel to the Sept. 11 commission.

In an account Mr. Farmer provided Tuesday, he described being in the state’s command center, in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, directly across the Hudson River from the burning wreckage of the trade center. The New Jersey State Police radio antenna had been on top of one of the towers, cutting off communications.“We were forced to rely on runners for intelligence about what was happening across the river and in New Jersey,” Mr. Farmer said.

In the vacuum, rumors were flying, he said. Bombers with suicide vests were in Times Square. Saboteurs were lurking around power plants. New York City’s mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was missing.

And then there was the wisp of a story that Mr. Farmer said was most disturbing of all: “That Muslims were dancing on the rooftops and in the streets of Jersey City and Paterson.” Indeed, pockets of radical Islamists had set up in Jersey City in the past. The 1993 World Trade Center bombers rented a van and stored chemicals and fertilizers in that city. Open jubilation at the mass death, Mr. Farmer said, might quickly be followed by rioting and more deaths. “If true, we would have had to mobilize the State Police and National Guard and locked the place down,” he said. “We followed up on that report instantly because of its implications,” he added. “The word came back quickly from Jersey City, later from Paterson. False report. Never happened.”

Political campaigns are notorious for the damage they do to truth, but Mr. Trump’s presidential run has erased any lines that would segregate rumors, facts, mistakes and outright falsehoods. This month, he posted a graphic on Twitter that purported to show that 81 percent of white murder victims were killed by blacks; in fact, 82 percent of whites are murdered by whites. Confronted by Bill O’Reilly, Mr. Trump essentially shrugged: “I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert, and it was also a radio show.” He has said, variously, that 200,000 or 250,000 Syrian refugees would be coming to the United States; the Obama administration’s actual goal for next year is 10,000, as FactCheck.org reported.

Indifferent as Mr. Trump is to facts, in retailing the myth of the dancing Muslims, he could not face a more sober and careful fact-finder than Mr. Farmer.

Now a professor of law at Rutgers University, he led the Sept. 11 commission’s investigation of the disarray in the nation’s air defenses on that morning and exposed as fiction claims by the Pentagon that fighter pilots were in hot pursuit of the hijacked airliners. In fact, military officials did not know about three of the four hijacked planes until after they had already crashed. That became the subject of a book by Mr. Farmer, “The Ground Truth,” which was hailed by Jacob Heilbrunn in The New York Times as a “precise and reliable accounting of what happened.”

Mr. Farmer said isolating and stigmatizing Muslims now, whatever its short-term political appeal, would spawn more alienated Muslim youth and potential recruits for the Islamic State.

“Whatever the message, it is just plain wrong to cite thousands of Muslims dancing in Jersey City or Paterson on 9/11 as support,” Mr. Farmer said. “That simply never happened.”

Rich, theocratic monarchy bombs the hell out of poorest country in the Middle East, John Kerry calls it "progress"

Ben Norton

Brutally bombing Yemen is helping “accomplish significant progress,” according to Secretary Kerry.

“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” was the slogan of the totalitarian government in George Orwell’s canonical novel “1984.” We can now add another phrase to the dystopian motto: “Brutally bombing poor countries is helping ‘accomplish significant progress.'”

Secretary of State John Kerry visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today to meet with Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The UAE — a close Western ally with some of the world’s largest oil reserves — is a federation of seven absolute monarchies which base their laws on an extreme interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law). Although it tries to present itself as practicing a semblance of democracy, the roles of the UAE’s president and prime minister are effectively hereditary in nature, passed down to the emirs of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The New York Times has described the UAE as “an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state.”

In his trip Monday morning, Kerry applauded the monarchic, theocratic state for its work in the region.

“We respect what United Arab Emirates has been able to do to be able to accomplish significant progress in Yemen,” Kerry said.

What exactly does Kerry mean by “significant progress”? He means the UAE has helped wage a destructive war on Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.

For the past seven months, Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition of Middle Eastern countries — armed by Western allies, primarily the U.S. — that is raining bombs down upon Yemen. The Western-backed coalition, which seeks to reinstate President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, is fighting Houthi rebels, who have received some weapons and support from Iran, and fighters loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Hadi characterizes the Houthi rebels as puppets of Iran; the rebels, in turn, call Hadi the puppet of Saudi Arabia and the U.S. As president, Hadi approved and praised the U.S. drone war in Yemen, which has killed a large number of civilians, terrorizing and sometimes even radicalizing the population. The U.N. says American drones havekilled more civilians than al-Qaeda militants, and many scholars, intelligence officials, and journalists have argued that the drone war in Yemen and elsewhere has onlymade violent extremism worse.

Although the coalition is led by Saudi Arabia, the UAE has played an important role. From the time the war began on March 26, the coalition has carried out regular airstrikes on targets in Yemen. In August, UAE troops escalated the conflict by essentially invading Yemen. Scores of Emirati soldiers have died in the on-the-ground fighting.

The U.S. media has been very quiet about the war overall, and American politicians have been even quieter. Yet the conflict has been catastrophic.

“We understand completely and support the reasons that Saudi Arabia and the UAE felt compelled to take acts of self-defense and to protect the security of this region,” Kerry said. But is the UAE acting in self-defense?

China - Xi stresses development of Marxist economic philosophy

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for new advances in Marxisteconomic philosophy by turning practices and experiences in China's economicdevelopment into economic theories.

Xi made the remarks on Monday while presiding over a group study session of the PoliticalBureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China's topleadership, on the basic theory and methodology of Karl Marx's political economy.

In face of the extremely complex economic situation at home and aboard as well as variedeconomic phenomena, the study of Marxist political economy could help conducteconomic analysis in a scientific way, improve the capability of managing a socialistmarket economy, and better answer problems of economic development, Xi said.

The CPC has enriched Marxist political economy by combining its basic principles withnew practices in reform and opening up and made many key theoretical achievements, Xisaid, listing acknowledgment of the market's "decisive" role in allocating resources, the"new normal" theory and its development as examples.

"This new development concept should be used to guide and promote our country'seconomic development, unravel difficult problems, and create new dimension in economicdevelopment," Xi said.

As the fundamental standpoint of Marxist political economy, the theory of putting peopleat the center should be upheld while deploying work, setting down policies and promotingeconomic development, according to Xi.

The president highlighted the need to uphold and improve the basic socialist economicsystem, stressing that people should consolidate and develop the public sector whileencouraging, supporting and guiding the non-public sector to develop.

"The mainstay status of the public ownership and the leading role of the state-ownedeconomy must not waver," he said, adding that these could ensure that people from allethnic groups share the fruit of development, and they are guarantees for solidifying CPC'sruling status and adherence to the socialist system.

In addition, Xi stressed that the direction for reforming the socialist market economy andthe basic state policy of opening up should be adhered.

During the group study, members of the political bureau listened to a lecture delivered byProfessor Gu Hailiang from a committee of social sciences under the Ministry ofEducation.

Group study is used by the top leadership to learn about major issues. It was the 28thgroup study of the current political bureau.

'Why down Russian jet? Because fighting ISIS is not really on Turkey's agenda'

Turkey has been consistent in pursuing its own agenda: to pretend to be fighting ISIS while settling scores with one of the two parties that are actually capable of fighting ISIS on the ground – the Kurds, says Foreign Affairs Editor Srdja Trifkovic.

As a Russian Su-24 fighter jet operating over Syria was shot down, RT discussed with experts the reasons and possible consequences of this incident.

Srdja Trifkovic, Foreign Affairs Editor:

"It is perfectly consistent with Turkish behavior since it ostensibly joined the anti-ISIS campaign last July.

Over 80 percent of the tonnage of their bombs would drop on the Kurds fighting ISIS in Northern Syria and North Western Iraq. So, in fact Turkey has been consistent in pursuing its own agenda which is to pretend to be fighting ISIS while settling scores with one of the two parties that are actually capable of fighting ISIS on the ground, the other being, of course, the Syrian Army.

But I think this is a reckless move by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to throw spanners in the works of Russia’s increasing profile as the only serious player from the outside who is trying to do something.

Patience that we are now witnessing between France and Russia.

So, I think Erdogan who has been increasingly reckless and prepared to take serious gambles in recent years is now trying to up the ante and force the rest of NATO into a gesture of solidarity with Turkey. Of course, if you have the F-16 right in the air even before the Russian jets allegedly violated the airspace it was evidently a set-up. It was a deliberate trap which Erdogan down the chain of command had ordered to set up because he wants to test Russia’s response and he also wants to use or rather misuse Turkish membership of NATO to force the rest of the alliance into a virtually anti-Russian posture while at the same time sabotaging the fight against ISIS with which he secretly sympathizes. So, there are a number of motives for him to act this way in my personal opinion, when you put it all together, it is quite clear why he did it.

It will really poison the relations between Turkey and Russia".

Russian actions in Syria spooked Turkey

Catherine Shakdam, from the Shafaqna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies says that the timing of the attack on the Russian plane indicates that Turkey is afraid Russia might find proof that Ankara is working with terrorists.  

"The downing of the plane now is very telling about the relationship that Turkey has harbored with the radicals in the region and particularly ISIL, but not only ISIL – we have many, many groups in the region, we have al-Nusra, al-Qaeda...

The timing of this attack and the very fact that Russia was about getting rid of those financial veins towards ISIL, suddenly, I would say, maybe spooked Turkey a little bit - whether Russia would find out about technicalities or maybe undeniable proof on the ground that Turkey is working with terrorists or whether it is just a money flow will be stopped... There are many, many links between Turkey and ISIL. I think money is one of the least of them".

Russia: no interest in violating Turkish airspace

Aleksandr Pavic, political analyst:

"Russia has no interest in breaching Turkish airspace.

Even under the remote possibility that something like that happened, it would clearly be something that wasn’t on purpose. So, in any case Turkey, to say the least, overreacted knowing very well how serious the consequences would be. So, we need to think about what were the motives of Turkey for doing this. Just a few days ago the Security Council brought a resolution on the united fight against terrorism, specifically mentioning ISIS, Al-Qaeda and all related terrorist organizations related terrorist organizations which meant a call for the entire world to fight against the terrorism which we clearly identified. So, why is Turkey shooting a key, leading member of this anti-terrorist coalition. This is a question that must be answered…"

Turkey-Russia: major diplomatic row

The problem here is that we are seeing social media pictures, so, we have not got all the facts clarified yet, said Julian Bray, aviation security expert.

"The Russians are quite clear, they say they didn’t violate Turkish airspace and it is possibly a surface to air missile that brought it down. Meanwhile, the Turks are saying it was one of their aircraft – a Turkish F-16 fighter jets that actually brought the Russian plane down which is very worrying anyway. So, they really have to sort this one out because there is a major diplomatic row going on. They referred it back to NATO, but it is a complete mess…"

Russian jet downed over Syrian territory

A Russian fighter jet was targeted inside Syrian territory where Russia has been fighting against ISIS, Marwa Osman, political commentator told RT.

"We are talking about a plane which was targeted inside Syrian territory – that is the territory that Russia has been dealing with and working within for the past, say two month, or a month and a half.  Turkey has been warning Russia - we have heard and read a lot about what the Turks were telling the Russians; and even the Russian ambassador the other day – telling him that they were violating certain standards or certain forms by targeting these Turkmen villages... If these villages were actually inhabited by civilians we wouldn’t have seen right now the very unfortunate footage of the Russian pilot being detained and captured by militants".

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/323287-su24-fighter-russia-turkey-syria/

'17 Seconds': No One’s Buying Turkey’s Version of Su-24 Story

The Turkish government’s official explanation for shooting down a Russian Su-24 bomber was that it had violated Turkish airspace. But Ankara’s timeline of the events is already raising questions.

In the wake of the downing of a Russian bomber along the Turkey-Syria border on Tuesday, many were demanding answers. In a letter to the United Nations Security Council, the Turkish ambassador gave his government’s view of the incident.

"This morning (24 November) 2 SU-24 planes, the nationality of which are unknown have approached Turkish national airspace in Yayladagi/Hatay region. The planes in question have been warned 10 times during a period of 5 minutes via 'Emergency' channel and asked to change their headings south immediately," the letter, obtained by Wikileaks, reads.

"Disregarding these warnings, both planes, at an altitude of 19,000 feet, violated Turkish national airspace to a depth of 1.36 miles and 1.15 miles in length for 17 seconds from 9.24.05 local time."
But many social media users have begun crunching those numbers and found that they don’t quite add up.

When calculating the distance flown and the amount of time allegedly spent in Turkish airspace, some have attempted to determine the aircraft’s flight speed. According to those numbers, the Su-24 would have had to be flying at stall speed.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense also released video proving that the incident did not happen the way the Turkish government claims. Flight path data of the Su-24 shows that it never entered Turkish airspace, and was attacked while flying over Syria.

The bomber was shot down by two Turkish F-16s Tuesday morning. One of the pilots has been confirmed dead by Russian authorities, shot by rebel ground units after ejecting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a "stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists."

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20151125/1030699146/questioning-turkey-airspace-story.html#ixzz3sSCqnq5A

Video - Not only Ankara backs Daesh but offers also logistical support - Pepe Escobar

Video Report - ‘Turkey wants to drag NATO in a kind of collision course with Russia’ – Ali Rizk

GRAPHIC: New video of immobile Russian Su-24 pilot surrounded by armed Muslim animal fanatics rebels emerges

Moscow warns Ankara of "inevitable consequences" for attack on Su-24

Kremlin stresses that Russia is not threatening Turkey with military consequences for shooting down Su-24 combat aircraft, but warned of "inevitable consequences".

"…of course, I would not [speak about it] — and the president, in fact, was not talking about any military implications and we should proceed from that," the Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"The president refrained from such statements, but at the same time, of course, he stressed inevitability of consequences after such unfriendly actions of the Turkish side," he said.

No decision yet on Erdogan’s visit to Russia in December

The visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Russia scheduled for December will depend on a number of factors, Peskov added.

"No decision on this has been taken yet," the Kremlin spokesman said. "The visit undoubtedly will depend on a number of factors."

Turkey provides no proof Russian Su-24 violated its airspace

According to Peskov, Turkey has provided no evidence to prove that the Russian Su-24 bomber violated its airspace.

He said once Turkey had provided no proof Russia relied on its data that the warplane had not violated Turkey’s airspace.

When asked whether Ankara had offered any official proof of its claims that the Russian warplane had violated its airspace, he answered in the negative.

"We rely on data from out defense specialists who know all the parameters of the downed plane’s flight," Peskov said. "These data show that the plane was flying in Syria’s airspace and was shot down over Syria."

http://tass.ru/en/politics/838950

Russian Defense Ministry Video Proves Su-24 Never Entered Turkish Airspace

While authorities in Ankara have insisted that it shot down the Russian Su-24 bomber after the aircraft entered Turkish airspace, the Russian Defense Ministry has released video proving that the plane never left Syrian airspace.

According to a leaked letter written to the UN Security Council by the Turkish Ambassador, Turkey’s military justified the shooting down of a Russian bomber by claiming that the aircraft had entered Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.

But flight data released by Russian Ministry of Defense shows that the Su-24s never entered Turkey, and were attacked while performing legitimate maneuvers over Syria.
On Tuesday, Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24M Fencer bomber. One of the pilots has been confirmed dead by Russian authorities, shot by rebel ground units after ejecting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a "stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists."



Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/20151124/1030695406/mod-su-24-flight-path.html#ixzz3sS59s93X

Putin: Downing of Russian jet over Syria stab in the back by terrorist accomplices

Turkey backstabbed Russia by downing the Russian warplane and acted as accomplices of the terrorists, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“This incident stands out against the usual fight against terrorism. Our troops are fighting heroically against terrorists, risking their lives. But the loss we suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists,” Putin said.

Putin said the plane was hit by a Turkish warplane as it was traveling at an altitude of 6000 meters about a kilometer from the Turkish border. It was hit by an air-to-air missile launched by a Turkish F-16 jet. The crash site is four kilometers from the border. The plane posed no threat to Turkish national security, he stressed.

Putin said the plane was targeting terrorist targets in the Latakia province of Syria, many of whom came from Russia.

Russia has for a long time been aware of oil going from Syria under the control of terrorists to Turkey, Putin said. The money finances terrorist groups.

Putin: Downing of Russian jet over Syria stab in the back

'This incident stands out against the usual fight against terrorism. Our troops are fighting heroically against terrorists, risking their lives. But the loss we suffered today came from a stab in the back delivered by accomplices of the terrorists.' Full Putin's comment: http://on.rt.com/6xfi

Posted by RT Play on Tuesday, November 24, 2015

“IS has big money, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, from selling oil. In addition they are protected by the military of an entire nation. One can understand why they are acting so boldly and blatantly. Why they kill people in such atrocious ways. Why they commit terrorist acts across the world, including in the heart of Europe,” the Russian leader said.

The downing of the Russian warplane happened despite Russia signing an agreement with the US to prevent such incidents in Syria, Putin stressed. Turkey claims to be part of the US-led coalition fighting against IS in Syria, he added.

The incident will have grave consequences for Russia’s relations with Turkey, Putin warned.

“We have always treated Turkey as not only a close neighbor, but also as a friendly nation,” he said. “I don’t know who has an interest in what happened today, but we certainly don’t.”

The fact that Turkey did not try to contact Russia in the wake of the incident and rushed to call a NATO meeting instead is worrisome, Putin said. It appears that Turkey want NATO to serve the interests of IS, he added.

Putin said Russia respects the regional interests of other nations, but warned the atrocity committed by Turkey would not go without an answer.

Putin was speaking at a meeting with King of Jordan Abdullah II in Sochi, who expressed his condolences to the Russian leader over the loss of a Russian pilot in Tuesday’s incident, as well as the deaths of Russians in the Islamic State bombing of a passenger plane in Egypt.

The two leaders discussed the anti-terrorist effort in Syria and Iraq and the diplomatic effort to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.

Earlier a Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down by Turkish fighter jets near the Turkish-Syrian border. Turkey claimed that the plane violated Turkish airspace and did not respond to warnings. Ankara said it was rightfully acting to defend its sovereignty.

Russia insists that the plane stayed in the Syrian airspace.

One of the two pilots of the downed Russian warplane was reported killed by a rebel group as he was parachuting down on the ground after ejecting from the plane. The fate of the second pilot remains unknown.

Video Report - CrossTalk on downing of Russian military jet: Dangerous Skies

Afghan Music Video - آهنگ هزارگی

US Aircraft Struck Doctors Without Borders Hospital After Mistaking It for Taliban Target, Probe Finds

By LUIS MARTINEZ

A U.S. military investigation has determined that a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was mistakenly targeted by the crew of an AC-130 gunship that believed it was targeting another compound several hundred yards away that had been taken over by theTaliban, a U.S. official said today.

The hospital was targeted by mistake based on visual descriptions provided by U.S. and Afghan special operations forces that seemed to match the other compound seized by the Taliban, said the U.S. officials familiar with the contents of the report. Doctors Without Borders has said that the airstrike killed at least 30 doctors and patients at the hospital.

On Wednesday, Gen. John Campbell, the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is set to release conclusions of a 3,000-page investigative report into the airstrike. Shortly after the airstrike occurred, Campbell told Congress that it had been a mistake and soon after President Obama apologized to the president of Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières.

The investigation found that the mistaken targeting of the hospital occurred as the result of visual descriptions of another compound in the same general area that had been seized by the Taliban, according to the U.S. official, who noted that the AC-130 crew had also not received a full pre-flight briefing prior to the mission as they had been redirected from another location. Such a briefing could have contained information that the location of the Doctors Without Borders hospital was a protected site. The New York Times first disclosed the investigation's conclusions today.

The airstrike on the hospital in Kunduz occurred as Afghan forces continued to retake the city that had been seized by the Taliban days earlier. U.S. special operations teams served as advisers to the Afghan forces involved in clearing the city of Taliban fighters.

The crew aboard the AC-130 gunship was flying over Kunduz in the early morning hours of Oct. 3 when it was contacted by a U.S. special operations team working with Afghan special operations forces, the U.S. official said.

The Afghans requested an airstrike on a building compound in the city that housed the National Directorate of Security (NDS) -- Afghanistan’s intelligence service, the U.S. official said, noting that the Afghans believed the compound had been taken over by the Taliban and was being used as a base of operations.

The U.S. special operations team relayed a general location for the NDS compound and relayed visual descriptions of what it looked like to the crew of the AC-130 gunship flying overhead, the U.S. officials said. This was done to help the AC-130 crew locate the compound because of technical issues with targeting equipment aboard the plane.

Using the visual details provided by the American team on the ground, the crew of the AC-130 located what they believed to be the NDS building compound.

Unknowingly, the crew had located the Doctors Without Borders hospital that had similar features to the NDS compound described by the teams on the ground, the U.S. official said. While in the same general area as the NDS compound, the Doctors Without Borders compound was several hundred yards away from the NDS compound.

Doctors Without Borders had called for an independent investigation into what it had labeled a war crime. The organization's own investigation into the incident included details that updated GPS coordinates for the hospital in Kunduz had been provided to the U.S. military in Afghanistan just days prior to the airstrike.

Seeking to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest in the U.S. military's investigation into the attack, Gen. Campbell ordered a two-star general, not under his command, to head an exhaustive investigation into the airstrike.

The 3,000-page investigative report will be used for potential actions of accountability for U.S. military personnel involved in the airstrike, according to the U.S. official.

Bangladesh - It proves war criminals SQ Chy, Mojaheed were Pakistan’s men

Pakistan's top rights activist Asma Jahangir has blasted the Pakistan government for demonstrating “disproportionately high passion” against the execution of two war criminals in Bangladesh.

“The government was only confirming the fact that two men were political agents and working for the cause of Pakistan,” the country's English daily the Dawn quoted her as saying.

The response sent a message that the government of Pakistan had extraordinary love and affection for the opposition members in Bangladesh than its citizens, Jahangir told reporters at the Supreme Court on Monday, according to a report run by the newspaper yesterday.

“Equal passion, we hope, will be shown by the government for the people on death row in Pakistan than being hanged elsewhere in the world by denying due process,” she said.

The rights activist was reacting to the response by the foreign office and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan expressing anguish and concern over the execution of BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed.

Jahangir said Pakistan should first take up the issue of capital punishment through unfair trials here and of those Pakistanis who were being consistently executed in Saudi Arabia and then show disproportionately high passion for the politicians of Bangladesh.

“Are these two Bangladeshi more important than the people living in Pakistan?” she asked. If the answer is in the affirmative, the government should also explain why and what for, she insisted.

She was of the opinion that the hangings in Bangladesh would “further deepen the divide and haunt its politics in the future”. She said all human rights activists who monitored these trials “agreed that due process had not been given to the two accused”.

“We've condemned the unfortunate developments and even given out urgent appeals to the Amnesty International and other international human rights organisations in this regard,” she added.

The two politicians, said Jahangir, were executed “without affording due process”. The same right was being denied to the people facing trial in military courts on terrorism charges, she observed.

“We're against the death penalty and unfair trials whether in Pakistan, Bangladesh or elsewhere,” she said, adding that everybody knew that the trial of the two Bangladeshi politicians was “flawed”, but the role of Pakistan was something which was not understandable.

“If they [Pakistan government] are against the death penalty or the undue process, they should look into the trials being conducted by the military courts,” she said.