Why is the US warning Syria not to shoot back at Kurdish militia members who are firing on Syrian military positions? Because US Special Forces troops are fighting alongside the Kurds. But it also may be a shift in US policy away from its stated focus on ISIS and toward a focus on removing Assad. House Speaker Paul Ryan inexplicably released a statement at the end of last week castigating the Obama Administration for failing to attack the Assad government after the 2013 chemical attack in Ghouta. That all evidence points to a false flag rather than Syrian government culpability means little to Ryan’s propaganda team. With US-backed militants facing the possibility of a crushing defeat at Aleppo, it looks as if the US may be shifting toward direct confrontation with Assad (and by default also with Russia). This and more in today’s Liberty Report:

Osama bin Laden’s youngest son, Hamza, purportedly released an audio recording earlier this week in which he called for young Saudis to get involved with al-Qaeda in Yemen and in which he called for retaliation against ongoing US military operations in several countries in the greater Middle East. Said the younger bin Laden: “We will continue striking you and targeting you in your country and abroad in response to your oppression of the people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Muslim lands that did not survive your oppression.” Should we listen to him and start thinking about removing his recruiting tools, or do we keep doing that which helps him and others like him recruit more terrorists? Our thoughts in today’s Liberty Report:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered a major foreign policy speech in Ohio yesterday which was once again a very mixed bag. On the one hand he promised an end to regime-change and nation-building, which if he had just stopped there and stuck to it would have been a positive development. Unfortunately his positions are less driven by principles and policy than by desire to please both the pro-war and antiwar factions. Therefore he swore to defeat radical Islamic terrorism by dropping even more bombs in the Middle East, obviously not understanding that it was US bombs in the Middle East that created the problem in the first place. He wants to blame Obama and Hillary Clinton for ISIS without understanding that they were just carrying to its conclusion the interventionist policies of George W. Bush. We take a look at the ups and downs of Trump’s foreign policy speech in today’s Liberty Report:

When President Nixon closed the gold window on August 15, 1971, he sold it to Americans as a way to recover from the “war economy” of Vietnam and a way to combat inflation. As we know 45 years later, the proliferation of paper dollars has, if anything, made war all the more attractive, giving people the impression that it can be financed with dollars out of thin air. And inflation? While officially it sits at around zero, in fact you would need $594.28 to purchase today what you could purchase for $100 in 1971. The warfare state is driven by the fiat dollar. More on the fateful Nixon decision and its implications in today’s Liberty Report:

Russia claims that Ukraine sent a sabotage team into Crimea over the weekend, armed with bombs and military equipment. Russian president Putin has pulled out of the “Normandy” talks in response. Ukrainian president Poroshenko denied any involvement in an attack on Crimea and responded to the charges by placing his military on high alert and massing on Ukraine’s border with Crimea. Tensions are rising to levels not seen in a year. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt is publishing incendiary Tweets designed to embolden Ukraine to make a move on Crimea. Is the US trying to stir things up, or is Pyatt a loose cannon? More on the dangerous situation in today’s Liberty Report:

According to a recent study by the Pentagon-linked RAND Corporation, a US military conflict with China is unlikely by calculated move but less unlikely by miscalculation or accident. Does this not mean US interventionism in the South China Sea conflict could lead to such a nightmare scenario? Just this year the US has pushed both Vietnam and the Philippines to a more confrontational position vis-a-vis China. What if this brinkmanship and ally-shopping leads to a Chinese miscalculation? Looking at the scenarios in today’s Liberty Report:

In an attention-getting piece in the New York Times, former CIA acting director Michael Morell endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president and warned that Republican candidate Donald Trump is likely a Russian agent. In today’s Liberty Report we visit with former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, who for 18 years was actually in the business of handling intelligence assets, to see how far Morell is off the mark and to discuss the pro-war group-think that dominates Washington. How does Morell go from acting head of the CIA to enormously lucrative consulting jobs to heavily party-political activism? It’s all about selling fear to the American people:

Hillary’s private server is in the news again. This time the question is whether extremely sensitive discussions about a US Iranian asset may exposed his cover and led to his recent execution by the Iranian government. Also, about that $400 US payment to the Iranians…it wasn’t a ransom or a bribe. The real story is even more troubling. Will the mainstream media begin asking some of the tougher questions…or will it be up to the alternative media like the Ron Paul Liberty Report:

When she fired back at Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the policies he has supported directly led to the rise of ISIS, Senate hopeful Dr. Kelli Ward set off alarm bells in interventionist circles. Sen. McCain’s policy of backing every US war and incursion into the Middle East has helped spur the rise of ISIS and thereby made us all less safe, she explained. The interventionists want us to believe that they only support these foreign wars to keep us safe, but more and more Americans are coming to believe that they only make us weaker and more vulnerable. Dr. Ward joins us to talk foreign policy and civil liberties in today’s Liberty Report:

A recent report by the IMF’s internal Independent Evaluation Office concluded that the organization had disregarded its own rules and regulation to support the European elites and the political aims of the European project. The Greeks were waterboarded with austerity measures while the German and French banks were bailed out. The IMF Managing Director faces trial in France for mismanagement when she was finance minister there. Why should we tolerate such a corrupt body making foreign policy and economic policy with no oversight? More in today’s Liberty Report:

The Obama Administration announced yesterday that it would begin a sustained bombing campaign against ISIS in Libya. The Administration said it was acting in response to a request by the Libyan “Government of National Accord,” which was created by the UN rather than voted in by the Libyan people. Asked about the scope of this new US war on Libya, Pentagon Spokesman Peter Cook said, “We don’t have an end point.” Thus far Congress has been silent on this new war. We are not silent, however. Tune in to today’s Liberty Report:

Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s team invited the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, killed in Iraq in 2004, to speak at the convention and criticize Republican nominee Donald Trump’s policy on Muslim immigration. It was a classic trap and Trump bumbled into it. The ensuing blow-up may have made great ratings for the media, but what is unsaid is that both sides agreed that Khan’s death was a great sacrifice for our liberties and freedoms back home in the US. The media went along with this view. But being killed in a war started by government and media lies does not make one a heroic sacrifice. In fact, it makes on a victim. Khan was a victim of both Republicans and Democrats who supported the war in 2002 and he is victim again today. Ron Paul’s view in today’s Liberty Report: