I see that the self-hating, nitpicking, obsfucating house negroes are still at it...
Somethings never change..

We all already know that ISIS's Airforce is the same as Amerika's Airforce.
Numerous "mistaken" munition airdrops and now "mistaken" attacks on the Syria Army.

Amerika's blowback is coming and it's coming hard...

Meanwhile... So much for the cessation of hostilities. Uncle Sam can't help but show its true face

People, I see things are still the same...

Lol!

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Posperity:

CIA TROOPS FIRING ON PENTAGON TROOPS IN SYRIA



What a mess! In the crazy Syrian war, US-backed and armed groups are fighting other US-backed rebel groups. How can this be?

It is so because the Obama White House had stirred up the war in Syria but then lost control of the process. When the US has a strong president, he can usually keep the military and intelligence agencies on a tight leash.

But the Obama administration has had a weak secretary of defense and a bunch of lady strategists who are the worst military commanders since Louis XV, who put his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, in charge of French military forces during the Seven Year’s War. The French were routed by the Prussians. France’s foe, Frederick the Great of Prussia, named one of his dogs, "la Pompadour."

As a result, the two arms of offensive US strategic power, the Pentagon, and CIA, went separate ways in Syria. Growing competition between the US military and militarized CIA broke into the open in Syria.

Fed up with the astounding incompetence of the White House, the US military launched and supported its own rebel groups in Syria, while CIA did the same.

Fighting soon after erupted in Syria and Iraq between the US-backed groups. US Special Forces joined the fighting in Syria, Iraq and most lately, Libya.

The well-publicized atrocities, like mass murders and decapitations, greatly embarrassed Washington, making it harder to portray their jihadi wildmen as liberators. The only thing exceptional about US policy in Syria was its astounding incompetence.

Few can keep track of the 1,000 groups of jihadis that keep changing their names and shifting alliances. Throw in Turkomans, Yazidis, Armenians, Nestorians, Druze, Circassians, Alawis, Assyrians and Palestinians. Oh yes, and the Alevis.

Meanwhile, ISIS was inflicting mayhem in Syria and Iraq. But who really is ISIS? A few thousand twenty-something hooligans with little knowledge of Islam but a burning desire to dynamite the existing order and a sharp media sense. The leadership of these turbaned anarchists appears to have formed in US prison camps in Afghanistan.

The US, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey armed and financed ISIS as a weapon to unleash on Syria, which was an ally of Iran that refused to take orders from the Western powers. The west bears a heavy responsibility for the deaths of 450,000 Syrians, at least half the nation of 23 million becoming refugees, and destruction of this once lovely country.

At some point, ISIS shook off its western tutors and literally ran amok. But the US has not yet made a concerted attempt to crush ISIS because of its continuing usefulness in Syria and in the US, where ISIS has become the favorite whipping boy of politicians.

Next, come the Kurds, an ancient Indo-European stateless people spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. They have been denied a national state by the western powers since WWI. Kurdish rebels in Iraq have been armed and financed by Israel since the 1970’s.

When America’s Arab jihadists proved militarily feeble, the US turned to the Kurds, who are renowned fighters, arming and financing the Kurdish Syrian YPG which is part of the well-known PKK rebel group that fights Turkey.

I covered the Turkish-Kurdish conflict in eastern Anatolia in the 1980’s in which some 40,000 died.

Turkey is now again battling a rising wave of Kurdish attacks that caused the Turks to probe into northern Syria to prevent a link-up of advancing Kurdish rebel forces.

So, Turkey, a key American ally, is now battling CIA-backed Kurdish groups in Syria. Eighty percent of Turks believe the recent failed coup in Turkey was mounted by the US – not the White House, but by the Pentagon which has always been joined at the hip to Turkey’s military.

This major Turkish-Kurdish crisis was perfectly predictable, but the obtuse junior warriors of the Obama administration failed to grasp this point.

Now the Russians have entered the fray in an effort to prevent their ally, Bashar Assad, from being overthrow by western powers. Also perfectly predictable. Russia claimed to be bombing ISIS but in fact, is targeting US-backed groups. Washington is outraged that the wicked Russians are doing in the Mideast what the US has done for decades.

The US and Russia now both claim to have killed a senior ISIS commander in an air strike. Their warplanes are dodging one another, creating a perfect scenario for a head-on clash at a time when neocons in the US are agitating for war with Russia.

Does anyone think poor, demolished Syria is worth the price? Hatred for the US is now seething in Turkey and across the Mideast. Hundreds of millions of US tax dollars have been wasted in this cruel, pointless war.

Time for the US to stop stirring this witch’s brew.

[size=18pt]Must see video: US Peace Council returns from Syria, a country fighting “invasion by the most powerful country in the world”[/size]
Alex Christoforou

14 hours ago 8 346
The campaign to confuse the American people has been intense, but one thing is sure, Syria is fighting an invasion, not a civil war.

23 Share on Facebook Twitter

The truth about Syria and what is happening in Syria is all here, in the video below, outlined and documented during this press briefing by the US Peace Council (USPC).

We cannot be sure how long this video will be allowed to stay on Youtube, but we urge everyone to take 45:00 minutes of your time to see this video, share this video, and finally spread the word about the “vicious” war being waged on Syria.

Please share this post, and share this video, and share these excerpts, which may provide some life saving truth to an unjust, criminal war…and a western media narrative that continues to push lies and confusion to what is a clear and blatant international crime.

The Duran reported earlier today, as one of the few media organizations to expose this story…

A delegation from the US Peace Council (USPC) has recently returned to the US from a fact finding mission to Syria.

The members spent 6 days meeting with Syrian Government Officials including, President Assad, Union Leaders, Government Opposition Members as well as Civil & Business Leaders, NGO’s, Charities and Universities.

The delegation stated that each member paid their own way and that the Syrian Government allowed them to meet whomever they wanted.

They issued their report and held a press conference Press conference at the UN on 9th August 2016.

Madelyn Hoffman, Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action, Member of the Syria Delegation at the 17:15:

“This is not a civil war in Syria. That’s probably the first thing we heard, and we heard it over and over again.

It is not President Assad against his own people. It is President Assad and the Syrian people, all together, in unity, against outside forces, outside mercenary forces, terror organisations, the names change everyday or every other day, to try to protect their identity, and maybe keep the connection between the country that funded it and that group, kind of a little bit more nebulous, but there are groups, mercenary forces, supported by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United States, and underneath it, Israel, the state of Israel.

And these outside mercenary forces are the ones that are terrorising the Syrian people, and are attempting to divide the Syrian people."

US Peace Council (USPC):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc-RmAVK8Pg
H.E. Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic

Alfred Marder, President of the US Peace Council

Mary Compton, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council

Henry Lowendorf, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, Head of the Syria Delegation

Joe Jamison, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, Member of the Syria Delegation

Madelyn Hoffman, Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action, Member of the Syria Delegation

Donna Nassor, Professor and Lawyer also part of US Peace Council

Henry Lowendorf, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, at the 12:30 mark:

“We saw villages, that are basically Christian villages, that have been besieged by the terrorists, but have now been liberated. And the damage done to a shrine in the village called Maaloula, which is a village where they still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. And the attacks on the Christian population.”

“Their two things I want to mention, finally, that we feel are really important…

One is…That while the United States would like to divide the Syrians up, by religion or within a religion — by the different beliefs within that religion. There wasn’t a Syrian we talked to who would accept that.

We spoke to the Grand Mufti, and he said, ‘People ask me how many Muslims there are in Syria?’ and his response is always 23 million. That’s is the population of Syria.

And when we talk to the bishop of one of the Orthodox Churches, he answered the same thing, the number of Christians is 23 million.

We will not allow ourselves to be divided up the way the United States has divided up the people of Iraq, or Libya, or Afghanistan, or so many other countries. We won’t allow that.

And that unity, I believe, has lead to the ability of the Syrians to withstand an invasion by the most powerful country in the world, and its most powerful allies in Europe, its most powerful allies in the Middle East, with what is a vicious attack on the Syrian people.

The second is the sanctions. I have to admit that I did not know (before I went) that the United States has imposed sanctions on Syria in a way that’s similar to the sanctions that the United States imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, in order to weaken that country and that government, that the United States admits killed 500,000 children in Iraq, during the 1990s sanctions.”

The Duran reported in a post entitled, “Why the Syrian conflict is not a civil war”…

Alfred Marder who, is the President of the USPC firstly acknowledged that the US peace and anti-war movement has been in a state of confusion about Syria and that this has caused division within the movement.

He explained that the domestic tactic used by the US government to sway US public opinion, is, to demonise the leader of whatever country the US is targeting.

“Whether it’s Noriega, Hussein, Gaddafi, or Assad, there’s a definite pattern here”

He said the story the US people have been told about President Assad and Syria have been purposefully false. Concerning the reporting he said

“This is not accidental. This is designed to confuse people’s opinions on these Leaders.”

Jamison was blunt in his assessment and likened this quote to the dangerous attitude of so many Americans who think they know about Syria and President Assad but “….what they think they know, just ain’t so!”

In his opinion the US motive is to destroy Syria as an independent secular Arab state and make it compliant to US interests and policies, like Iraq and Libya have become since the US invasions and bombings of these two countries.

Just like Libya before the NATO bombing, Syria has universal free healthcare and free education from childcare through to university.

Jamison pointed out that the US government supports Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups (whose names change often) who they claim to be ‘moderate rebels’ but who in truth are not moderate in any way and are affiliated either with Al-Qaeda or ISIS.

He mentioned the foreign backed mercenaries (ISIS) are fuelled by the Wahhabi doctrine which he described as

“a sick medieval and backward ideology driven by the Muslim Brotherhood with its genesis in Saudi Arabia.”

He affirmed his opinion by describing how so called ‘moderate’ Jabhat Al-Nusra mercenaries beheaded a 12 yr old boy during the time the delegation was in Syria. There is nothing ‘moderate’ about beheading a 12 year old boy.

The other major story they shared was the generally unreported sanctions that the US has imposed upon the Syrian people.

The US government claims the sanctions target the Syrian government. However they are actually aimed at wearing down the resolve of the Syrian people.

The US has imposed sanctions similar to the ones Iraq experienced before the invasion, which even the US admits killed half a million children.

Syrians cannot get baby formula, common medication, medication for chemotherapy, child immunisation etc.

These sanctions are so insidious that they affect medical clinics throughout Syria because they are unable to get parts for machines used in medical practice. Think: X-ray, CAT, MRI machines right down to dentists drills.

President Assad has claimed from the beginning that there was no uprising and that the country was being invaded by foreign backed mercenaries. Gaddafi said exactly the same thing when NATO started bombing Libya.

Coincidence? I think not.

The same scenario was acted out in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria: invaded and bombed into submission without any politician, general or complicit media representative tried or held to account. There is not even an acceptance of error or a conciliatory voice of remorse.

“The campaign to confuse the American people has been intense.”

[size=18pt]Must see video: US Peace Council returns from Syria, a country fighting “invasion by the most powerful country in the world”[/size]
Alex Christoforou

14 hours ago 8 346
The campaign to confuse the American people has been intense, but one thing is sure, Syria is fighting an invasion, not a civil war.

23 Share on Facebook Twitter

The truth about Syria and what is happening in Syria is all here, in the video below, outlined and documented during this press briefing by the US Peace Council (USPC).

We cannot be sure how long this video will be allowed to stay on Youtube, but we urge everyone to take 45:00 minutes of your time to see this video, share this video, and finally spread the word about the “vicious” war being waged on Syria.

Please share this post, and share this video, and share these excerpts, which may provide some life saving truth to an unjust, criminal war…and a western media narrative that continues to push lies and confusion to what is a clear and blatant international crime.

The Duran reported earlier today, as one of the few media organizations to expose this story…

A delegation from the US Peace Council (USPC) has recently returned to the US from a fact finding mission to Syria.

The members spent 6 days meeting with Syrian Government Officials including, President Assad, Union Leaders, Government Opposition Members as well as Civil & Business Leaders, NGO’s, Charities and Universities.

The delegation stated that each member paid their own way and that the Syrian Government allowed them to meet whomever they wanted.

They issued their report and held a press conference Press conference at the UN on 9th August 2016.

Madelyn Hoffman, Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action, Member of the Syria Delegation at the 17:15:

“This is not a civil war in Syria. That’s probably the first thing we heard, and we heard it over and over again.

It is not President Assad against his own people. It is President Assad and the Syrian people, all together, in unity, against outside forces, outside mercenary forces, terror organisations, the names change everyday or every other day, to try to protect their identity, and maybe keep the connection between the country that funded it and that group, kind of a little bit more nebulous, but there are groups, mercenary forces, supported by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United States, and underneath it, Israel, the state of Israel.

And these outside mercenary forces are the ones that are terrorising the Syrian people, and are attempting to divide the Syrian people."

US Peace Council (USPC):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc-RmAVK8Pg
H.E. Bashar Ja’afari, Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic

Alfred Marder, President of the US Peace Council

Mary Compton, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council

Henry Lowendorf, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, Head of the Syria Delegation

Joe Jamison, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, Member of the Syria Delegation

Madelyn Hoffman, Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action, Member of the Syria Delegation

Donna Nassor, Professor and Lawyer also part of US Peace Council

Henry Lowendorf, Member of the Executive Board of the US Peace Council, at the 12:30 mark:

“We saw villages, that are basically Christian villages, that have been besieged by the terrorists, but have now been liberated. And the damage done to a shrine in the village called Maaloula, which is a village where they still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. And the attacks on the Christian population.”

“Their two things I want to mention, finally, that we feel are really important…

One is…That while the United States would like to divide the Syrians up, by religion or within a religion — by the different beliefs within that religion. There wasn’t a Syrian we talked to who would accept that.

We spoke to the Grand Mufti, and he said, ‘People ask me how many Muslims there are in Syria?’ and his response is always 23 million. That’s is the population of Syria.

And when we talk to the bishop of one of the Orthodox Churches, he answered the same thing, the number of Christians is 23 million.

We will not allow ourselves to be divided up the way the United States has divided up the people of Iraq, or Libya, or Afghanistan, or so many other countries. We won’t allow that.

And that unity, I believe, has lead to the ability of the Syrians to withstand an invasion by the most powerful country in the world, and its most powerful allies in Europe, its most powerful allies in the Middle East, with what is a vicious attack on the Syrian people.

The second is the sanctions. I have to admit that I did not know (before I went) that the United States has imposed sanctions on Syria in a way that’s similar to the sanctions that the United States imposed on Iraq in the 1990s, in order to weaken that country and that government, that the United States admits killed 500,000 children in Iraq, during the 1990s sanctions.”

The Duran reported in a post entitled, “Why the Syrian conflict is not a civil war”…

Alfred Marder who, is the President of the USPC firstly acknowledged that the US peace and anti-war movement has been in a state of confusion about Syria and that this has caused division within the movement.

He explained that the domestic tactic used by the US government to sway US public opinion, is, to demonise the leader of whatever country the US is targeting.

“Whether it’s Noriega, Hussein, Gaddafi, or Assad, there’s a definite pattern here”

He said the story the US people have been told about President Assad and Syria have been purposefully false. Concerning the reporting he said

“This is not accidental. This is designed to confuse people’s opinions on these Leaders.”

Jamison was blunt in his assessment and likened this quote to the dangerous attitude of so many Americans who think they know about Syria and President Assad but “….what they think they know, just ain’t so!”

In his opinion the US motive is to destroy Syria as an independent secular Arab state and make it compliant to US interests and policies, like Iraq and Libya have become since the US invasions and bombings of these two countries.

Just like Libya before the NATO bombing, Syria has universal free healthcare and free education from childcare through to university.

Jamison pointed out that the US government supports Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups (whose names change often) who they claim to be ‘moderate rebels’ but who in truth are not moderate in any way and are affiliated either with Al-Qaeda or ISIS.

He mentioned the foreign backed mercenaries (ISIS) are fuelled by the Wahhabi doctrine which he described as

“a sick medieval and backward ideology driven by the Muslim Brotherhood with its genesis in Saudi Arabia.”

He affirmed his opinion by describing how so called ‘moderate’ Jabhat Al-Nusra mercenaries beheaded a 12 yr old boy during the time the delegation was in Syria. There is nothing ‘moderate’ about beheading a 12 year old boy.

The other major story they shared was the generally unreported sanctions that the US has imposed upon the Syrian people.

The US government claims the sanctions target the Syrian government. However they are actually aimed at wearing down the resolve of the Syrian people.

The US has imposed sanctions similar to the ones Iraq experienced before the invasion, which even the US admits killed half a million children.

Syrians cannot get baby formula, common medication, medication for chemotherapy, child immunisation etc.

These sanctions are so insidious that they affect medical clinics throughout Syria because they are unable to get parts for machines used in medical practice. Think: X-ray, CAT, MRI machines right down to dentists drills.

President Assad has claimed from the beginning that there was no uprising and that the country was being invaded by foreign backed mercenaries. Gaddafi said exactly the same thing when NATO started bombing Libya.

Coincidence? I think not.

The same scenario was acted out in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria: invaded and bombed into submission without any politician, general or complicit media representative tried or held to account. There is not even an acceptance of error or a conciliatory voice of remorse.

“The campaign to confuse the American people has been intense.”

The massive expansion of the Internet and connectivity is probably the biggest undoing of the Hegemon. The truth will always eventually sip out

The name of photographer that took Omran's photo is Mahmoud Raslan and thanks to Walid on Twitter, we now know he has a long history of filming little injured boys. He also likes to hang out with the Zinki terrorists who harm them.

The Omran photo is credited to something called the Aleppo Media Center which is described by the New York Times as “a longstanding group of antigovernment activists and citizen journalists who document the conflict”

The Aleppo Media Center have their own page over at the Times of Israel.

Here’s a Tweet from the Aleppo Media Center from back in 2014 when they were singing the praises of al Qaeda in Syria, a.k.a. al Nusra:

Aleppo Media Centre – English
October 30, 2014 ·
‪#‎aleppomediacenter‬ ‪#‎aleppo‬:
Al Nusra Front rebels repelled a regime forces attack in Al Maidan neighborhood and managed to kill several regime members this morning

According to this guy, Raslen posed for the photos with the “head choppers” a week or so after they killed that boy. I’m not so sure he didn’t take the video. There’s no way of knowing. And as you can tell from the Aleppo Media Centre’s work, they seem like embedded journalists for the CIA’s “moderate” terrorist campaign over there

Vanessa Beeley has done a wonderful job of untangling who exactly these White Helmet guys are. They are nothing more than sophisticated and high-gloss propagandists working in collusion with jihadis and their masters in Washington, London and Riyahd.

Lengthy but absolutely worth the read:

http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/10/23/syrias-white-helmets-war-by-way-of-deception-part-1/

http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/10/28/part-ii-syrias-white-helmets-war-by-way-of-deception-moderate-executioners/

Desperate, desperate, dangerous Amerika. Keep up the good, God ordained work fellas..

Hmmm.... Uncle Shmuel keeps taking it up the butt.......

Another country calling B.S. on the "Assad must go" cry. I wonder what McCain thinks of this? I hope the old man doesn't have a heart attack


[size=18pt]China ‘to provide aid, enhance military training’ in Syria – top army official[/size]
Published time: 16 Aug, 2016 15:2

Soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) © Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Beijing and Damascus have agreed that the Chinese military will provide humanitarian aid to Syria, a high-ranking People's Liberation Army officer said, adding that the training of Syrian personnel by Chinese instructors has also been discussed.
Director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of China's Central Military Commission, Guan Youfei, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for talks with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij, Chinese Xinhua news agency reported.

During the negotiation, Guan noted China’s consistent diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, adding that Beijing is now seeking closer military ties with Damascus.


"The Chinese and Syrian militaries traditionally have a friendly relationship, and the Chinese military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation with the Syrian military," he said.

Guan and al-Freij discussed the enhancement of training and "reached a consensus" on the Chinese military providing humanitarian aid to Syria, Xinhua reported, without providing further details.

According to the agency, Guam also met with a Russian general during his visit to the Syrian capital.

Despite being a permanent UN Security Council member and relying on the Middle East for oil, China was previously reluctant to become involved in the Syrian conflict.

Beijing preferred to concentrate on domestic affairs and the territorial dispute with its neighbors in the South China Sea.

It praised Moscow’s anti-terrorism efforts in Syria as Russia staged a bombing campaign there in September 2015 to March 2016. Russia still has some of its forces in the country to provide humanitarian and military assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

Last year, there were reports that China was sending dozens of military advisers to Syria to help the country fight terrorists.

READ MORE: China’s military advisers ‘heading to Syria to help fight ISIS’ – report

Syria has been engulfed in civil war since 2011, with the government fighting a number of rebel groups, in addition to terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front.

Yet another propaganda "news" outfit exposed for their lies, obfuscation and disinformation about MH17.

[size=18pt]MH17 lies exposed - Graham Philips and Billy Six report [Video][/size]



This fresh video from some of our favorite independent journalists shows them... well basically doing their job, which most of German mass media apparently refuse to do.

They go over the DirecTV MH17 report, talk to the people mentioned in it, and show that this report (widely praised by mainstream media) is mostly exaggeration or fiction, and the group that produced it is very shady themselves.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhJJYANt0s8

I present to you another Kremlin bot, Senator Ron Paul!

[size=18pt]Ron Paul says ‘CIA involved’ in government overthrow in Ukraine, war brewing over Crimea (VIDEO)[/size]


VLADIMIR RODZIANKO

15 hours ago 4 337
Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams skillfully dissect the latest storm clouds hanging over Crimea.

As Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams correctly point out, the whole crisis originates from the U.S. backed overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014 , Ukraine’s constitutional and democratically elected President. The U.S. backed regime that seized power in Ukraine as a result of this coup has pursued a militantly anti-Russian line, provoking the secession of Crimea and Russia’s actions there. Though this has created a crisis on Russia’s border in an area where the U.S. has no direct interest, the U.S. continues to meddle, fanning tensions and internationalizing the problem.



From the Ron Paul Liberty Report:

Russia claims to have stopped a sabotage operation by Ukraine’s intelligence service. Ukraine denies the charge and has beefed up the military on its border with Crimea. Is another war brewing? Is the US pushing for it?

A very important point Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams make is that the U.S.’s unqualified backing for the Kiev regime simply encourages it to take the sort of dangerous and reckless actions we have just seen in Crimea. The result is that every attempt to reduce tensions in the area – of which there have been many coming from the Russian side – have come to naught. In Ukraine, as in other places (including Syria – also touched on by Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams in the video) U.S. policy is creating problems, not solving them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI4U9dB1NN8

Zoharariel:
Anti-Spam bot don fire Nairaminted - sorry comrade!

Seun, Mynd44 - Do something about the bot, it's getting really annoying.

Thanks my man and fellow soldier - and even greater thanks to the mods for unblocking and even allowing the post (albeit incomplete) to stand. The Ant-spam BOT can really get on your nerves sometimes but I guess even the mods themselves are feeling the gospel that we share on here so they had to let the post stand.

And since I can't edit that same post again lest the Anti-SPAM BOT kicks in again, I'll just post the remaining parts/amendments right here:

These Ukronazis apparently chat a lot when taunting Russia AND when confessing to acts of sabotage.

This captured Panov fella they say is singing like a bird

Surely even the rest of Europe must be getting tied of these crazies






Ukrainian terrorist Panov has also admitted to take a part in punitive criminal actions against civilians in Donbas, so called “ATO”

And I thought Russia was "being isolated"?

These Ukronazis apparently chat a lot both when taunting Russia AND when confessing to acts of sabotage.

This captured Panov fella they say is singing like a bird

Surely even the rest must be getting tied of


Kiev confirms Yevgeny Panov detained in Crimea is Ukrainian citizen

August 11, “Panov was detained on suspicion of preparing and attempting terrorist attacks in Crimea

KIEV, August 11. /TASS/. Yevgeny Panov detained on suspicion of organizing terrorist attacks in Crimea is a Ukrainian national, a spokesman for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service, Oleg Slobodyan, told a news conference on Thursday.

According to the FSB, one of the organizers of the planned terrorist attacks was Yevgeny Panov, a resident of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region born in 1977, an employee of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate who was detained as well and is giving a confession.

The Russian Federal Security Service reported on Wednesday that it had spotted and detained a group of Ukrainian saboteurs overnight to August 7 near the city of Armyansk (Crimea) and that it had prevented terrorist attacks in Crimea prepared by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate. Their planned targets were critically important infrastructure and life support facilities. Twenty improvised explosive devices containing more than 40 kilograms of TNT equivalent, ammunition, fuses, antipersonnel and magnetic bombs, grenades and the Ukrainian armed forces’ standard special weapons were found at the scene, the FSB said.”

Russia: FSB says Ukrainian detainee Yevgeny Panov admitted plotting attacks in Crimea


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSlFtPkyeIE



Published on Aug 11, 2016

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested a Ukrainian man in Simferopol, Thursday, on suspicion of organising terrorist attacks on the territory of Crimea. The suspect was identified as Evgeni Panov, a resident of Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine. According to the FSB, Panov has pleaded guilty to plotting the attacks in Crimea.

SOT, Official (Russian): “What is your relation to the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine?”

Evgeni Panov, Suspect (Russian): “I was invited to Kiev [*JUMP CUT AT SOURCE*] … I was told that a group was being organised for carrying out sabotage actions on the territory of Crimea.”

*JUMP CUT AT SOURCE*

SOT, Official (Russian): “Who were the members of the group?”

Evgeni Panov, Suspect (Russian): “The group included staff officers of the Ukrainian military intelligence. Members of the group were Alexander Kirillov with the call name ‘Kiril’; staff officer Dmitri Semyanin; Oleg Petrenko with the call name ‘Fox’; Aleksei Sandil with the call name ‘Sai’; as well as a man with the call name ‘Deshek’; and myself. The staff officers were Aleksei Sandil who holds the rank of lieutenant; Vladimir Serdyuk – captain, Dmitri and [Alexander] Kirillov were also officers, but I am not aware of their titles.” *JUMP CUT AT SOURCE*

SOT, Official (Russian): “What is the role of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence in this operation?”

Evgeni Panov, Suspect (Russian): “As far as I know, this operation was planned by the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence with the help of its staff officers.”

*JUMP CUT AT SOURCE*

SOT, Evgeni Panov, Suspect (Russian): “I understood the risk of this operation. According to my sources, an explosion of military hardware of the Russian Ministry of Defence was expected. Of course, there was a risk of a high death toll.”

*JUMP CUT AT SOURCE*

Video on Demand:

Russia: Ukrainian detainee Ridvan Suleymanov tells of alleged plan to bomb Simferopol airport



Published on Aug 12, 2016

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested a Ukrainian man in Simferopol, Friday, on suspicion of organising planned terrorist attacks on the territory of Crimea. The suspect was identified as Ridvan Suleymanov, a resident of the Zaporozhye region in southern Ukraine, who was allegedly recruited by the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence in October 2015.

SOT, Ridvan Suleymanov, alleged agent of the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence (Russian): “I went to Simferopol airport on July 30 where I contacted Pavel Nikolaevich and informed him that I was in position and had successfully planted the bomb. He texted me an ‘+’ which meant that I should wait until they contacted me with a conference call with the police.

I walked around, waited and then they phoned me. During the conference call I heard something that shocked me: ‘I’m Amir Karimov. Today other brothers and I are turning from a small to a big jihad. Promptly at 12 o’clock we will blow up the central airport of the city of Simferopol and also the central bus stations of Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol and the Kerch Strait ferry line.’

After that I went directly to the airport to monitor the reaction of law enforcement agencies. I took five photos and sent them to him through the ‘Line’ app. After that I was arrested by the law enforcement agency.”

Russia: FSB seize explosives allegedly earmarked for Crimea attack [Thanks, Baaz, for links]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juazt5uPa3g

On August 11th, the Russia’s MID (Foreign Ministry) issued a statement

STATEMENT BY THE FOREIGN MINISTRY OF RUSSIA on terror attacks in Crimea




Terrorists’ Plans

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR MOU) was preparing to target the Russian peninsula’s critical infrastructure, the FSB announced on Wednesday.

A group of infiltrators was discovered near the town of Armyansk in northern Crimea near the Ukrainian border in a special FSB operation over the weekend, the agency said, adding that fire was exchanged as the terrorists were being apprehended.

The infiltrators also planned to blow up a highway in the region at the time motorcades with local officials and federal authorities would have been driving through it.

Arrested officer of the Ukraine’s military intelligence Panov: “Oil depots, ferry lines and chemical plants were the targets of our sabotage operation”



Ukrainian terrorist Panov has also admitted to take a part in punitive criminal actions against civilians in Donbas, so called “ATO”

Appleyard:


There is no denying the fact that foreign intelligences knew about the botched coup, and from the look of things and body languages that follows its aftermath, one can conclude that while some or one of such intelligence body worked in favour of the attempted coup, the other worked against it. This much is very apparent when you consider actions of Turkey immediately after the coup. Turkey immediately called Russia "a friend," which signifies that the Russian intelligence must have helped in thwarting the coup, even though Erdogan denies that he didn't receive any help from any foreign intelligence, but his next comments during the Russian meeting further fuels the claims that FSB must have helped him during the attempted coup, when he said that, "if I make a call for help, I will always find a helper in Russia." That statement alone clarifies the fact that Erdogan was tipped off by the Russians, and so is very possible that S-400 triumph (which actually covered the whole of those area) and Russians tailing behind, must have been the reason why the F16s couldn't take out the presidential jet from the sky. There is simply no other plausible explanation for it.

Again, the lockdown of the Incirlik airbase with such huge security force and armaments, further lend credence to the increasingly obvious fact that a section of the US CIA was behind the coup, either with full or partial collabo from Washington, or that Washington wasn't even at all briefed on the attempted coup. This is very possible because this days, its becoming harder to tell who is in charge of American foreign policy. Whether its Bush era CIA or the other CIA plus Israeli lobby buggy man group, we can't tell anymore. Right now, trying to understand and comprehend the centrality of America's foreign policy, is one hell of an enigma, with State Department saying and doing one thing, while the factionalized CIA is doing another: a complete mystified paradoxical irony of stated objectives.

And now that Turkey is talking of striking defence arrangement with Russia, that will also include missile defence components, while also pushing forward the idea of a trilateral economic and security triangle that will involve Turkey, Russia and Azerbaijan, as a counter to its growing mistrust of and perceived mistreatment by NATO/the EU, is raising eyebrows in the western hemisphere, and has further laid bare the folly and archaic policy of the US in backstabbing and always seeking to overthrow any nation that deviate from its puppeteering course of action. Thus, the rumours making the mills about the tactical nukes, could be anything to go by, not that they would be of much use to Turkey in any significant sense, since they don't have the launch codes either.

However, one thing is gradually unravelling , and it is that, American foreign policy to the Mideast is crumbling before our very eyes. The only regret is that its going to be at the expense of much blood and chaos.

I couldn't have said it any better. The body language and statements post coup and the delayed statements of condemnation of the coup from the West says a lot.

I also hear that that story of Erdogan seeking asylum in Germany whilst the coup was unfolding was hatched by a Western paper to lend more credence to the illusion that the coup was succeeding.

Latest, News

[size=18pt]Shootout in Crimea: Russia’s FSB vs Ukrainian Saboteurs[/size]

Alexander Mercouris
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS
1 day ago 2 510
The FSB interception of Ukrainian sabotage groups attempting to infiltrate Crimea raise tensions.
Anyone who has been following Ukraine related news over the last few days will be aware of reports of Russian troop movements in Crimea, of a shoot out there between the Russian security forces and alleged Ukrainian infiltrators which left several people dead, and of claims that Ukrainian sabotage groups had attempted to infiltrate the peninsula.



On 10th August 2016 came final confirmation of the incident from Russia’s counterintelligence and anti terrorism agency, the FSB (full statement attached below). It reported separate incidents involving three Ukrainian sabotage groups connected to the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry, shoot outs between FSB operatives and the Russian military and the Ukrainian military across the border line, and the deaths of one FSB operative and of one Russian soldier caught up in the shoot outs. Other reports speak of the death of at least two Ukrainian infiltrators, and of the capture of several others, which claims however the FSB report does not confirm. The FSB report does however speak of twenty improvised explosive devices containing more than 40 kilograms of TNT equivalent, ammunition, fuses, antipersonnel and magnetic bombs, grenades and the Ukrainian armed forces’ standard special weapons being found in one of the locations involved in the incident.

The FSB report also says that several Ukrainian and Russian citizens belonging to an undercover spy ring operating inside Crimea have been arrested on charges of planning to help the saboteurs. The FSB has named the ringleader as Yevgeny Panov, a resident of Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region born in 1977, who the FSB says is an employee of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate. Presumably he has been working in Crimea for some time under cover. The FSB says it has arrested him and that he is “giving evidence”.

The FSB has not identified the targets of the saboteurs other than saying that they were “critical infrastructure and life support facilities on the peninsula”. Some Russian media reports have suggested that the intention was to create “false flag” incidents that would set Crimea’s Tatar and Russian communities against each other. The reference to “critical infrastructure and life support facilities on the peninsula” does not however support this. Rather it suggests an attempt to disrupt power supplies and possibly water treatment plants at the height of Crimea’s tourist season and on the eve of the elections.

The Ukrainians for their part deny all these allegations, claiming that the whole incident has been invented by the Russians. The Western media, predictably enough, is following the Ukrainian line with wild speculations that the Russians have fabricated the whole incident in order to justify a Russian invasion of Ukraine during the Olympic Games.

Whilst the full truth of this incident will only become known over time – when or if people like Panov are put on trial – there is actually no reason to doubt that the Russian account is true. The Russians are hardly likely to arrange the death of one of their own FSB operatives and of one of their soldiers in order to fabricate an incident like this, and the report of the capture of several of the saboteurs, and the confirmation of the arrest of the members of the spy ring which was created to support them, all but confirms that the Russian claims about this incident are true. Indeed given that Ukrainian leaders frequently speak of Ukraine being at war with Russia it is not difficult to see why they might authorise a sabotage mission of this sort in order to disrupt elections which would confirm the extent of Crimea’s integration into Russia. Presumably the Ukrainian plan was to claim that the attacks were the result of local anti-Russian resistance cells, thereby fostering the fiction that there is opposition within Crimea to its unification with Russia. It has been a cause of serious embarrassment to the Ukrainian leadership and its Western backers that there has been no real evidence of such opposition up to now. The sabotage mission appears to have been intended to “correct” this.

Two days ago I reported about a meeting Putin had with his security chiefs which appeared to have been hurriedly convened in a secret location. I speculated that the meeting was held to discuss the situation in Aleppo. Whilst Aleppo undoubtedly was discussed at this meeting as shown by the presence of Foreign Minister Lavrov and the Kremlin’s account of the meeting – which referred to Putin’s forthcoming meetings with foreign leaders, of whom the two most important were President Erdogan of Turkey and President Rouhani of Iran with whom the topic of Syria and Aleppo would certainly be discussed – the meeting between Putin and his security chiefs undoubtedly also discussed the situation in Crimea, and the reports of the Ukrainian sabotage mission there.

Might there have been any other purpose to this Ukrainian sabotage mission other than to create the appearance of instability in Crimea during the tourist season and during the coming election season? Putin in the joint press conference he held in Moscow following his meeting with Armenia’s President Sargsyan linked the incident to the attempted murder of Igor Plotnitsky, the leader of the Lugansk People’s Republic. If true that would suggest that having despaired of a military victory the government in Kiev is now turning to assassination and sabotage tactics in order to keep the struggle with Russia going and to achieve its political goals. Alternatively it could be that the Ukrainians have carried out these operations in preparation for the summer offensive in the Donbass that has been much talked about but which has yet to happen, though it is not clear how planting bombs in Crimea could aid a military offensive in the Donbass. Yet another explanation is that the Ukrainians might be sensing a weakening in European support and might have launched the operation in order to heighten tensions and to rally support and to further undermine the Minsk II peace process.

My own opinion is that the most likely explanation for this frankly reckless action – which will cause serious embarrassment to some of Ukraine’s European backers even if they are not prepared to say so publicly – is the chaotic condition of the Ukrainian power structure and the perennial infighting that goes on there. Given the luridly romantic language many members of the Maidan movement customarily like to indulge in I can easily see how the sabotage operation in Crimea and the murder attempt on Plotnitsky – if the two are indeed connected – might have been planned by individuals in Kiev who might think that the success of such operations would increase their credibility and popularity within the Maidan movement and therefore their chances of achieving political success in Ukraine.

Whatever the precise motivations behind this incident Putin has made it very clear that the Russians are taking it extremely seriously. He has already said that there will no Normandy Four meeting with Merkel, Hollande and Poroshenko at the forthcoming G20 summit in China. Moreover and in contrast to what happened following the trial of Savchenko, whose actions were carried out in the Donbass and therefore in territory the Russians continue to recognise as Ukrainian, I expect the Russians to be much slower to agree to prisoner exchanges of the Ukrainian operatives who were involved in this mission and who they accuse of carrying out or planning to carry out violent actions on Russian territory.

Here is the text of the statement describing the incidents which has been provided by the FSB:

“The Russian FSB averted terrorist acts in the Republic of Crimea that were being prepared by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.
The Russian FSB averted terrorist acts in the Republic of Crimea that were being prepared by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, and which targeted certain critical infrastructure and life support facilities on the peninsula.
The goal of the attacks was the destabilisation of the socio-political situation on the peninsula prior to the approaching elections to the federal and regional governmental institutions.
The search operations carried out during the night of 6/7 August 2016 in the vicinity of the city of Armyansk, Republic of Crimea, uncovered a group of saboteurs. While attempting to detain the terrorists, an FSB operative was killed by enemy gunfire. The following was discovered on the scene: 20 improvised explosive devices with a total explosive power of 40kg TNT, munitions, special detonators, standard-issue anti-personnel and magnetic land mines, grenades, and special-issue weapons used by Ukrainian armed forces’ special operations units.
The follow-on measures on the territory of the Republic of Crimea eliminated a network of agents operated by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Ukrainian and Russian citizens, engaged in the preparation of terrorist attacks, were arrested, and are now giving evidence. One of the organisers is Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Panov, born 1977, an inhabitant of the Zaporozhye Region of Ukraine, an operative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukrainian MOD, who has also been arrested and is giving evidence.
During the night of August 8, 2016, Ukrainian MOD special operations units attempted two more infiltrations by saboteur units which were prevented by the armed units of the FSB and collaborating entities. The infiltration effort was covered by heavy fire from the adjacent country, including by armored vehicles belonging to Ukrainian military. A Russian soldier was killed by the fire.
On the basis of the investigative and combat actions, the Crimea FSB Directorate’s investigations department has launched a criminal case. Additional investigative measures are being implemented. Places where large groups of tourists are concentrating and resting, and critically important infrastructure and life support facilities have been taken under additional security. A strengthened border control regime has been introduced on the border with Ukraine.”

[size=18pt]ALEPPO UPDATE: SAA regains control - prepares for Final Battle [+Videos][/size]

August 12th, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
- by: J. Flores -





Events in the siege of Aleppo since our last update have followed a tense yet decisive course. While the specifics remained fluid, the overall outcome was a somewhat predictable course given the balance of forces. Changes which appeared to favor the 'rebel' takfiris began late in the day on August 6th, when al-Nusra and FSA began to make gains in their attempt to connect with the external takfiri force in the south-west area of Aleppo.

There was a brief connection, but very soon came under shelling and aerial bombardment from Russians, rendering this - as we reported several days ago - operationally unusable.

As we reported on the 7th/8th, this attempt to break the siege actually failed.

The fluidity of the situation of the exact area is depicted above, in south-west Aleppo, what was once a 2.4 km strip held only by the SAA and allies, is now a narrower and contested strip in the above map. However, this may not be accurate.

The two videos with a lot of aerial footage, shot by FSA (et al), shows several of the areas in question in this report, uploaded on the 9th, but the footage is from days before, prior to changing hands over to the SAA.

What is also interesting is the large scale of these areas and facilities. It may be easy to forget that before this war, Aleppo was a major city with several million people. On the map, this areas of southwest Aleppo looks small, but these videos show us something else entirely.

The first one in particular features the Ramouseh industrial district. The viewer can appreciate the extent of destruction, truly apocalyptic in nature.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzaIjwek6d0

This second one shows the Military Academy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQS2H5MJrQg

World Islamic News provides the map update above, current for August 10th, 2016, but published reflecting August 11th. We believe this map reflects the situation on the 9th, or perhaps the 10th. We have conflicting reports about this, as we have it on good information that the 1070 block, the cement factory, as well as the Electrical Station and Ramuse Artillery are at the disposal of the SAA. These should be included as 'contested'.

We distinguish 'disposal' from 'control' because earlier the SAA made a statement on the 9th (see the quote below) about the ebb and flow of the battle, as well as some insight into their battle tactics. But Fort Russ actually prognosticated all of these several days before, on the morning of August 8th (7th in the US) in our article titled:

LATEST: Total Overview - Aleppo Battle now favors SAA

At the present time, we have confirmed that the information about the changes to the battlefield situation which we gave on the 7th/8th is accurate and generally reflects the situation now. This report therefore will include additional information as well as trivia that may be of interest, as well as an additional forecast on the strategy moving forward.

On August 9th, the SAA did finally announce what we had reported on August 8th:


The passage that terrorists opened toward the Eastern side of Aleppo after Syrian Arab Army units were ordered to withdraw and regroup is under SAA fire control.

The passage is not safe, not even for infantry personnel at night; it is as good as closed again.

However, that does not mean it will not be controlled again, and the points of which the Syrian forces withdrew from will not be recaptured. Unfortunately we cannot share any battle tactics yet; perhaps when that battle is over, we will try and explain a lot of SAA's movement.



What we can say now is that the SAA is preparing for counter offensive intended on capitalizing on their stabilizing of the situation.

This video gives a report from one area, on the 6th of August, when the rebel offensive to break the siege was in tact, and frustrating attempts by the SAA to make any progress on the siege.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrst4hMbDkw


But as of now, the Al-Nusra, FSA, et al, and their western and backers are clearly aware of the significant set backs since the 6th, and they are panicking.

This is evident because of the change in the nature of their own reporting on social media. There is now no more talk of a 'victory' at Aleppo. Now, the stories have returned to the 'human tragedy', and calls for western intervention for 'relief'.

Reuters is performing their roll, providing information war cover for the 'rebel' fighters. In this piece, titled, U.N. urges Aleppo ceasefire to repair water system, stem outbreaks, it is clear what is occurring.

Indeed, such 'assistance' is only possible through the institutions of the UN under Ban Ki Moon, which would only be authorizing movement of medical supplies for fighters and tools and parts for repairing equipment for artillery (etc.) under the guise of infrastructural (electrical, plumbing, etc.) parts.

That the western backed forces are calling for a ceasefire, with which they may regroup, rearm, and resupply, is very indicative that in this theatre, their awareness of their dire situation is acute.

Reuters is going into overdrive, reporting on the humanitarian situation, headlining that the "Intensifying fight for Aleppo chokes civilian population"






What this of course means is that the al-Nusra and FSA groups inside Aleppo are 'choking'. To fact check, before the SAA began to put the final clamp on the 'rebels', two weeks ago, humanitarian corridors were established, and civilians were moved into liberated west Aleppo, were provisions were made for tens of thousands of residents.


A 'moderate' machine gunner lays down suppressive fire at the cement factory wall


We will recall the story of the downed Russian helicopter making a humanitarian run, in connection with this. The government's intentions here are obvious and clear. While the US and GCC allies are trying to create a failed state, the Syrian government is trying to keep a Syria together that is governable, which includes a population that doesn't largely view that the state engaged in needlessly punitive actions upon civilian populations.

The strategy of the SAA now will be to melt the main power resources of the 'rebels' in one or several large battles. If al-Nusra and FSA, now fully besieged once again in Aleppo, are unable to access resupply of necessaries, they may have no choice but to surrender in some way, or make a final suicide push in desperation.

The only mitigating factor upon this may be larger geopolitical developments, which make it broadly opportune to engage in another ceasefire. There are a limited number of scenarios in which this would be advantageous, and whether that scenario will actually arise is difficult to project at this time. This may include something involving the increasingly tense situation in Ukraine, in the aftermath of the foiled assault on Crimea and Putin's decisive ultimatum.


What is important about the losses of the takfiris over the last week is that disproportionate number of these were from their special forces, about 3000 rendered inoperative as a result of the assault. They are from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkmen Battalion, all western trained.

That this vanguard was thrown in first is evident now for a number of reasons, including that they were reinforced with the best armor at the same time. When the takfiris threw their best armor at the SAA and allies, it was also clear that the infantry was special forces.

Their plan was for their job to do the big pushing, and then go into a reserve roll as to to not sustain loses from air power. This did not go as well as they had hoped.

At this time the SAA has not started the final counter offensive, and are instead strangling the takfiris and melting them with fire power.

Meanwhile, SAA reserves are coming including part of 15th Special Forces Division, several battalions, battalion of Hezbollah, and some Shia militias numbering several hundreds each, and some large army units, in particular an additional armored division.


Tiger Forces

Tiger forces are holding at Castello road, as they have avoided a trap. The 'rebels' have big group west of Castello, and the plan was that when they stormed the southern position, the army would bring reserves from the north and then make an attack on Castello road, which is open land and not urban warfare. But the SAA avoided this trap

The SAA continues to hold pressure on the south and there are seemingly two options.

The first is to hold them in a pocket and melt their resources, and bomb their over stretched columns from Turkey and Idlib, witch the Syrian and Russian army do very well.

The second option is to counter attack them immediately. For reasons discussed above, at this time, and based on movements observed now, including the 'cries' for help communicated through Reuters, it seems the army will go for the first option.

The FSA and al-Nusra are now in a strategic corner with no other exit.

They are leaving other fronts like Lattakia, where they have also sustained big defeats, to go to this battle which they cannot win, because they have sustained larger losses than the SAA several times over. They cannot win it, and at the same time cannot afford to lose it.

Still, there remains heavy fighting in the countryside of Lattakia.

It would appear that presently, the takfiris are only buying time and attempting to extend their legitimacy. Any counter offensive they could launch at this time would be would a real perspective of actual victory.

What happens with Turkey will also figure in greatly. One of the contingent factors is whether or when Turkey will close border. One credible theory is that Erdogan gave them passage for this battle because he knows when they lose Aleppo he will be able to wash his hands of them. He cannot disentangle so quickly, and while he has extricated Gulen members from the military and positions in the judiciary and educational system, there is the matter of the Muslim Brotherhood. He relies on the Muslim Brotherhood, but at the same time they have become both a pillar of support and a liability which operates as a domestic factor, beyond just NATO or the US, which forces him to continue to support ISIS and other formations in the Syrian conflict. This may be reminiscent of Poroshenko sending in vanguard units of Azov and Pravy Sektor groups in order to face certain demise, which relived him of certain political and even security pressure at home, once they were liquidated at the hands of the Donbass militias.

Iraq and its border will also figure in. The US has started deliver F-16's again to Iraq, they can extract additional resources from Iraq before Mosul falls, but the Iraqi government is now under good advisement and plays it smart, they see it as buying their independence.

This, closing the border with Iraq and Turkey are two of the most important factors which remain. The southern front from Jordan is almost totally pacified.

The outcomes of Eastern Ghouta and Lattakia will figure prominently, but the Syrian government has been carefully transferring the population from Ghouta as to make a more decisive attack possible, that makes use of air superiority.

The Syrian army was wise to withdraw from operations near Raqa because now it remains simply a fight to the death between the Kurdish YPG and ISIS.

A point of reader interest: Hezbollah used a drone and attacked takfiri positions in Aleppo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAV7DwBfrZI

[size=18pt]Two moves ahead: Russia refuses to slip into Ukrainian trap[/size]
August 11, 2016 -
By Eduard Popov for Fort Russ
Translated by J. Arnoldski



A few hours ago, a meeting of the UN Security Council, urgently convened in connection to Ukraine’s saboteur attacks on the territory of Russian Crimea, came to a close. The session was convened on Ukraine’s initiative, which is something of a strange incident. Usually, the injured side is the one to initiate such a meeting. In this case, the offended party is Russia, two of whose officers were killed at the hands of Ukrainian terrorists. Either Ukrainian diplomats turned out to be more agile than the Russians, or the convening of the UN Security Council session was merely a debriefing session. In my opinion, the second version appears to be more relevant. It is of even greater importance that the session was a closed one, which gives rise to even more anxiety.

As Russia’s permanent UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, stated, the meeting was useful for Russia insofar as it offered the opportunity to convey to other countries comprehensive information on the incident in Crimea. At the same time, the diplomat did not limit himself to merely informing his foreign colleagues about the Crimean incident, but also brought forth the Russian point of view on events in Donbass. Churkin advised the Ukrainian government to cease the conflict in Donbass and “stop shelling civilians.”

Currently known information on the UN Security Council meeting is quite limited. Nevertheless, some conclusions can be drawn and some previously made predications can be reinforced.

1. Today in an interview for a Russian publication, I expressed the opinion that there will be no war with Ukraine at this stage. I posited that the words of Churkin quite clearly confirm this view. Despite all the negative perceptions of the Ukrainian leadership as now even being “terrorist,” Russia is still ready (or compelled) to negotiate with it. Many hot heads in Russia will be disappointed with such restraint on the part of Russian diplomacy. But I believe that this is the only reasonable behavior to have in such an uncertain situation. The plans of the terrorist attacks’ organizers included a lavish display of the Ukrainian side’s intentions with shooting from Ukrainian territory and the shelling of Russian soldiers. There would have been no need for deliberate demonstrativeness, as the terrorist attack itself would have been arranged quietly and then, the organizers of the attack (obviously not Ukrainians, but useful tools in foreign hands) hoped for an emotional reaction from Russia.

Society has indeed expressed its frustration and replied with calls to punish Ukraine up to the point of sending in Russian troops. However, Russia’s political and military leadership has turned out to be more restrained and does not wish to act in a way predictable for the opponent, or play according to their rules. There is the danger of a direct military clash between Russia and Ukraine, but it is minimal. Otherwise, there would have already been such a war. That a war of this sort hasn’t been started yet is exclusively the merit of Russia, despite Ukraine’s efforts.

2. Vitaly Churkin’s words linked the incident in Crimea to the situation in Donbass while simultaneously appealing to Russia’s European partners’ opinions. Russia, as a victim of Ukrainian terrorism, is hoping for understanding on the part of its Western partners from the Normandy Quartet, who are supposed to put pressure on the Kiev regime. However, the recent statement by the French Foreign Ministry urging the conflicting parties to come to a peaceful agreement leaves little chance that the West will cooperate. The US State Department has supported all of Ukraine’s actions without “noticing” their terrorist character.

We can only guess what specific actions the Russian side will subsequently take against Ukraine if Kiev violates the ceasefire in Donbass. Judging by Vladimir Putin’s statements, Russia could abandon the Normandy Format. Without a doubt, the negotiation process over Donbass would continue in some kind of new form, either without Ukraine’s participation, or with strict control over its actions in Crimea. Admittedly, it is difficult to speak of an specifics on this question.


3. Despite the patience of President Putin and Russian diplomacy, a war with Ukraine seems to be only a matter of time away. Ukraine itself is deliberately provoking Russia to take this step. On August 11th, the holding of military exercises in Southern Ukraine and marine corps’ exercises were announced and Poroshenko gave the order to put troops in a state of high alert and move them up to the border of Russian Crimea. This is a game of muscle-flexing and a provocation against Russia. According to Chekhov’s famous play, if a gun hangs on the wall in the first act, then it will necessarily be shot in the last.

[size=18pt]Putin throws down the gauntlet - takes aim at US, calls Poroshenko ''puppet" [+Video][/size]
August 11th, 2016 - Fort Russ News -
- R&U Vid - J. Flores with R. Quintanilla



Video Below



The Russian Federal Security Service prevented terrorist attacks in the Crimea, planned by the General Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of Ukraine.


A surprising public statement

In yesterday's public statement, which took many by surprise, Russian President Putin has thrown down the gauntlet, and openly revealed Moscow's actual assessment: The present government in Ukraine is illegitimate, was installed by a violent coup backed by the US, and Poroshenko is but a puppet of the US, who acts both blindly and foolishly in carrying out acts of terrorism against the Russian Federation.

Putin also went on to characterize the assassination attempt upon the life of Igor Plotnitsky, head of the Lugansk People's Republic, as an act of terrorism. While it is consistent with Russia's policy to date to consider any acts of violence against the Russian Federation directly as an illegal aggravation, this is the first time since 2014 that Putin has characterized violence against Novorossiyan leadership as a de facto 'international' event (as opposed to an internal police action within Ukraine), and of terrorism at that.

In light of all of this, Putin publicly expresses something almost approximating incredulity, that Poroshenko cannot create a rational policy on Russia. Is he simply envious of Putin's successes in the many countries he deals with, including in the EU and the US, and their sanctions? Putin clarifies, of course, that it is because Poroshenko is but a puppet, entirely beholden to the US who placed him in power following a violent and illegal coup.




Ukraine and Russia both make military moves

Poroshenko now has Ukrainian troops at maximum alert over this Crimea incident on Russian borders, after being caught red handed with terrorist plans by the FSB. Immediately after this Putin has stated that the Minsk agreements, because of Ukrainian actions, are senseless and without value, and - apparently - there is no need to have any further talks.

This is a pressure point for Europe and Ukraine who immediately said it is ready (again?) to "talk" on the subject.



But the west might have turned the key to infuriate Russia, and make Putin's Russia an open weapons supplier for Donbass, missiles and all. Ukrainian soldiers know - because everybody knows - that they would go to a certain death and no one believes their families are in any way happy about this. The military answer the Donbass gave to Ukraine with the militia surprised the world. That militia is now gone and instead they have an even better, professional army, declared to the public openly on Victory Day of 2015, supplied and supported by Russia. The results have been outstanding for the Donbass, winning every battle brought to them by Ukraine.

We also cannot overlook the fact that on August 8th, just days before this announcement, we reported the following:

Russia has just moved four divisions, nine brigades and 22 regiments along with two missile brigades with complexes "Iskander-M" into the south-west of the Russia, toward Ukraine, under Shoigu's orders.


The Ukrainian army is preparing for a new offensive in the Donbass, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin said recently. Typically, high-ranking officials don not give such warnings unless they are based on carefully gathered intelligence. Churkin is no exception.

Therefore, it is difficult not to conclude that these events are connected.

In this case, Russia is using a pretext - which in the grand scheme of things may even seem a bit small (two soldiers killed at a border shootout) - to take the initiative in the information/media war, and give themselves a publicly moral footing for something which, clearly, has been planned in response to Ukraine's army build up, which even Churkin just publicly raised at the UN.

The situation on the ground

Ukraine's society is desperate, broke, humiliated by the EU, with their necks under a very repressive government who has broken all of the few promises of wealth and greatness promised during the Maidan coup.

The Donbass is ready, alert, alive and ready to fight, as the few videos we get show a society that is under serious pressure from this war and Ukrainian terrorism, but still looking forward to a better future, and hope for a final victory against a derailed Ukraine, that today is totally erroneous in the plans they have for the Donbass region.

[video]


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie6xrZ7-CoQ

All the events over the last several weeks are likely to be all connected

It is much more common for Putin to speak softly, and carry a big stick. This Teddy Roosevelt approach to geostrategy has worked well for him, even if superficially pro-Russian detractors and critics would like him to engage in fare more chest beating than would be appropriate for a statesmen having this level of caliber and international respect.

This is why yesterday's statement can only be interpreted as an ultimatum that will be followed by some no-doubt history making, and serious action.

It is important to take note that Putin makes this address following his bi-lateral talks with Serzh Sargsyan, President of Armenia. The context of this is a week of high-level and historical meetings with the leaders of Iran and Azerbaijan in Baku, followed by a serious agreement on ending sanctions and energy market development with Erdogan.

But what was discussed behind closed doors is something that may not be known for decades to come, if ever. It is likely, regardless of official statements and claims, that these meetings included the status of the CSTO, Armenia's conflict with Azerbaijan, and Turkey's relationship both with that and the Eurasian Union.

There have been any number of provocations, including the shelling of Russian support positions, by the Ukrainian Army, on Russian territory, which Putin could have seized as a pretext to make the sort of definitive and game-changing statement that he made today.

This leads us to conclude that this weeks meetings, the possibility of a shift in Turkey's orientation (or at least triangulation), and the failures of the US's side at Aleppo this past week, are all factors which contribute to the timing of this major statement.

The US also may have timed the provocation itself, perhaps to escalate tensions with Russia in the run-up to the elections. It would perhaps bode poorly for Trump if a heated or even hot exchange with Russia made Ukraine a major focus, and was the focus of media during an election where clearly Clinton is favored among imperialists and hawks.

This would certainly distract from the US failures to topple the government in Syria, and would also detract from Russia's successes against terrorist groups there, which the US (despite their actual aims at arming said terrorists) has apparently 'failed' to make any traction against.

Russia is certainly in the position to take all of Ukraine, if this was their short-term or immediate goal. But the consequences would only result in a diplomatic disaster, and would nix whatever progress Russia has made in softening up Europe's attitude to Russia and sanctions. Despite much news coverage on the subject, Russia has been able to make some significant progress in the economic sphere in relation to European banking, and has already struck deals with numerous EU states which, only technically, work around the existing sanctions.

For these reasons, we should expect a response from Russia that is aimed at making an example of the Ukrainian regime over its recent provocation, while at the same time doing so in a fashion which carries forward their long-term diplomatic aim of keeping at least a portion of European elites skeptical of (and hedging against) Trans-Atlantic designs on Russia.

[img]http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/ukrainian-president-petro-poroshenko-wearing-a-military-fatigue-a-picture-id451859334[/img]
[size=18pt]Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko preparing to attack Donbass and Crimea[/size]


ALEXANDER MERCOURIS
1 hour ago 0 152
Despite angry rhetoric, private calls for restraint from the West likely to prevent war, though situation remains extremely dangerous.
In the aftermath of the shoot outs in Crimea the Russian and Ukrainian Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, have met with their higher political and military leaderships.



Putin’s meeting took the form of a plenary meeting of Russia’s Security Council, the body which was partially and hurriedly convened on Monday. Poroshenko’s meeting was with the Ukraine’s National and Security Council, a body that has a similar name to Russia’s Security Council but which does not have the same all-encompassing powers, and whose remit is far more narrowly restricted to defence and security questions.

Poroshenko has also put the Ukrainian military in Donbass and along the border with Crimea on alert. He is also trying to contact the US and European leaderships to gain their support. It is a certainty that over the next few hours ritual statements of support for Ukraine and criticisms and warnings to Russia will indeed come from the US and European leaderships.

Putting aside all the rhetoric, will these latest moves result in war between Russia and Ukraine in Crimea, and between Ukraine and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in the Donbass?

Two things first need to be said. Firstly the idea that there is peace in the Donbass is a myth. Fighting goes on there every day on the contact line with the Ukrainian military regularly shelling militia positions and the militia shelling the Ukrainian military in return. Firefights happen continuously At the beginning of July Ukraine admitted losing 80 of its soldiers in fighting in the Donbass in the course of just one week, whilst towards the end of July Ukraine admitted losing 6 of its soldiers in a single clash on just one day. Secondly the political situation in Ukraine is so unstable and the anti-Russian atmosphere there is so strong that it would be foolish to count on Ukraine showing any sort of restraint. War is therefore unfortunately a very real possibility.

On balance however I doubt it will happen. The Kremlin’s brief summary of Putin’s meeting with the Security Council speaks only of discussions for “additional security measures and critical infrastructure protection in Crimea” and of a detailed review of “scenarios of counter-terrorism security measures along the land border, offshore and in Crimea’s air space.” That suggests that the Russians are only looking at tighter security measures within Crimea itself, and that they at least have no plans to start a wider war. That would of course be consistent with the whole approach the Russians have been taking ever since the Ukrainian conflict began in 2014.

As for Ukraine, though there are undoubtedly individuals there who are fully capable of starting a war and who show every indication of wanting to do so, I personally doubt that in the end Ukraine will take the plunge and go to war. Behind the ritual statements of support I expect both the US and the Europeans in private to be urging Ukraine to show restraint for two reasons: firstly, because whatever they may pretend in public I am sure they have guessed the truth that it is the Russian account of the Crimean incident which is true; and secondly and far more importantly because they know that in any war between Ukraine and Russia – or even between Ukraine and the two People’s Republics of the Donbass – Ukraine would lose.

Obama certainly does not want another defeat in Ukraine in the middle of a US Presidential election campaign on his hands, especially since this would probably play into the hands of Donald Trump, though unfortunately the same cannot be said of some of the more psychopathic individuals who support Hillary Clinton, who seem to be yearning for confrontation with Russia on just about any pretext. More to the point I just cannot imagine that Angela Merkel, facing criticism in Germany for her open-door refugee policy and with her anti-Russian policy coming under growing criticism from the SPD, the CSU and the German business community, wants another debacle in Ukraine on her hands.

In fact I suspect that some people both in the US and Europe are privately furious with the Ukrainians for landing them in this mess, whatever they may feel obliged to say in public. Whether or ot that is so I expect that the telephone lines between Western capitals and Kiev are currently burning with urgent calls for restraint. Despite the strength of the war party in Kiev I doubt that the Ukrainian authorities in the end feel strong enough to disregard these calls.

There will be dismay in Europe over something else. The Europeans have stupidly linked the lifting of sanctions against Russia to the full implementation of the Minsk II Accords notwithstanding that they know perfectly well that it is Kiev not Moscow which is not honouring them. The whole premise of this foolish step was that it would pressure Moscow to make concessions. In the event not only has Moscow failed to make any concessions but Putin has now called off the next Normandy Four meeting, which was supposed to review progress in implementing the Minsk II Accords. With growing public anger in Europe over the sanctions there must now be panic on the part of some European leaders that the Russians may be prepared to walk away from the whole Minsk II process – which they foolishly linked the sanctions to – leaving these same European leaders high and dry.

Just as I suspect that the telephone lines between Kiev and Western capitals are currently burning with calls for restraint, so I suspect that the telephone lines between Moscow and Western capitals are also burning with urgent calls to the Russians to modify and explain their new hard line and to recommit to the Normandy Four format. I would not be surprised if the Russians in return are being given private assurances that the Western powers will act to prevent Kiev doing what it tried to do in Crimea ever again. Whether of course the Russians would believe those assurances is another matter.

Having said all this I want to repeat again that the situation remains extremely dangerous. Ultimately any decision for war or peace lies with Kiev. No one in their senses would place any firm reliance on Kiev doing the sane thing. The next few days or hours will decide the issue

Zoharariel:
The Renewed Call for War in Syria is coming. Be ready.



It was reported, late last month, that a Clinton regime:


“…will reset Syria policy against ‘murderous’ Assad regime”



This comes from a statement made by one of Hillary’s aides, the delightfully named Jeremy Bash, speaking the
Telegraph Bash also said:


“…a Clinton administration would seek to bring moral clarity to the US strategy on the Syrian crisis.”


For those of you behind on your Newspeak lessons, “moral clarity” means bombing more people. It means arming terrorists and mercenaries (even more than they already are), and it means implementing the famous “no fly zone”.

People tend to think of a no-fly zone as a passive, defensive measure. It is neither.

A no fly zone means NATO jets patrolling the skies above Syria, shooting down Russian and Syrian bombers.

A no fly zone is World War III waiting to happen. A no fly zone is a global suicide pact. Nevertheless, it will almost certainly be part of the “moral clarity” Clinton intends to bring to bear on Syria.

There are also signs of a renewed propaganda campaign: The “new chemical attack” - the reported use of barrel-bombs laced with chlorine gas in Idlib province.


To sum up:


* In the week leading up to the 1st of August the Western media began a new barrage of propaganda concerning Syria, and especially Aleppo.

* On July 28th al-Nusra Front, the much derided “moderate rebels”, changed their name and disavowed all links to al-Qaeda (or pretended
to, at least).

* On August 1st the “rebels” launched a counter-attack, trying to cut the supply lines of the government forces surrounding Aleppo, and a Russian helicopter was shot down, killing 5 Russian soldiers.

Nobody is asking where the “besieged” rebels got the arms and supplies needed to counter-attack.

No one is asking where the rebels, who previously had no anti-air weapons, got the MANPADs required to take down a helicopter.

No one is asking, because everyone knows. It’s the same place ISIS get their matching Toyotas and green-screen equipment.

It’s the same place that started this war five years ago, and the same place that will set the whole world ablaze if allowed to go unchecked.

Amerika's proxies are throwing everything at Aleppo and they are indeed meeting their Waterloo there. The great battle of Aleppo is indeed one of great strategic importance and as such the imbelicic and deranged beings that run Amerikan foreign policy have been scurrying to work out a faux joint strike force with Russia. Their most formidable terror proxy army, Jabhat al-Nusra, as instructed by their masters, and to avoid being bombed, has also been busy rebranding itself and declaring their disengagement from Al-Qaeda. Lol!
Whilst they do that, other neocons have been hitting the airwaves unashamedly canvassing for no flight zones and the need to - in the words of Mike Morell - "kill Iranians and Russians" in a desperate bid to save their "regime change" agenda.

https://www.facebook.com/RussiaInsider/videos/1762669844003251/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYs_pfljaBE



On a side note, who remembers what the narrative of the Obama regime was prior to the Russian intervention:

"We’re talking four or five."
Some laughably candid figures provided by the head of US Central Command General Lloyd Austin September 2015, to the US Senate’s Armed Forces Committee when asked how many US-trained fighters are operating in Syria. This is after $500 million (plus others) had been squandered training so-called "moderate rebels" who only handed their fighters and men to a myriad of jihadist groups operating in Syria. Lmao!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwxmjs0TKkI

[size=18pt]FSB blames Ukrainian Defense Ministry for foiled terrorist plot in Crimea[/size]


August 10, 2016

FSB.ru

Press Release


Translated by Kristina Kharlova



FSB prevented terrorist acts in Republic of Crimea prepared by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine



The Federal security service of Russian Federation prevented terrorist acts in Republic of Crimea prepared by the Main intelligence department of the Ministry of defense of Ukraine, targeting critical elements of infrastructure and life support of the peninsula.


The purpose of sabotage and terrorist acts was to destabilize the socio-political situation in the region during the period of preparation and the process of elections of federal and regional authorities.


As a result of the investigation activities on the night of 6th to 7th August 2016 near the city of Armyansk, Republic of Crimea, a group of saboteurs was discovered. During the arrest of terrorists an employee of FSB of Russia was killed in a firefight. On the site of the clashes the following evidence was found: 20 improvised explosive devices with total capacity of more than 40 kilograms of TNT, ammunition and special means of initiation, regular antipersonnel and magnetic mines as well as grenades and special weapons used by special units of the armed forces of Ukraine.

Measures were taken on the territory of Crimean peninsula to liquidate a network of agents of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Armed forces of Ukraine. Detained persons were citizens of Ukraine and Russian Federation, assisting in the preparation of terrorist acts, who had confessed. One of the organizers of the prevented acts of terrorism is Panov Evgeniy Aleksandrovich, 1977 year of birth, the inhabitant of the Zaporozhye region, the employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine, who was detained and has confessed.

On the night of the 8th of August 2016 special forces of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine carried out two attempts of a breakthrough by sabotage and terrorist groups, which were prevented by law enforcement units of the Russian FSB and other involved agencies. Breakthrough was attempted under the cover of a massive attack from the neighboring state [Ukraine - FR] involving armored vehicles of Ukrainian armed forces. During the firefight, a soldier of the Defense Ministry of Russian Federation was killed.

Based on the results of the investigative and combat operations, the investigative department of the FSB of Russia in the Republic of Crimea and city of Sevastopol opened a criminal case. Additional operational activities and investigation are conducted.

Additional security measures were taken in places of public gatherings and recreation, and also for the protection of critical infrastructure. Security at the border with Ukraine has been strengthened.

The Ukro-nazis will do anything to provoke a war with Russia and stall or renege on the Minsk Agreement...

[size=18pt]Unforgiving Rhetoric: Vladimir Putin comments on provocation in Crimea - Minsk negotiations now pointless[/size]
Fort Russ, August 10th, 2016
Translated by Tatzhit

Vladimir Putin:

"This is very disturbing. Our security services have prevented penetration of sabotage-reconnaissance group of the Ukraine Ministry of Defense into Crimea. Of course, such actions mean that continuing talks in Normandy format is pointless, especially when it comes to the next meeting in China.

Because, apparently, the people who [violently] seized power in Kiev and continue to usurp it, don’t want negotiations. [snip] Now, instead of looking for ways to settle the conflict peacefully, they decided to try terrorism.

In this regard, I can’t avoid mentioning that we view the recent assassination attempt targeting the head of the Lugansk People's Republic as an [act of terror], same as the current attempt to sneak saboteurs into the territory of Crimea.

I want to point out, I think the media reported it already, that the Russian side took losses. Two soldiers were killed. We certainly won’t excuse such things.

But I would like to also address our American, European partners. I think that by now it is obvious for all involved that the current Kiev authorities are not looking to solve problems through negotiation. Now they escalate to acts of terror. That is very concerning.

At first glance, what we just saw in Crimea seems to be a stupid and criminal act. It’s stupid, because it is impossible to regain the trust of Crimean population that way. And it’s criminal, because people have died.

But I think that the underlying situation is even more alarming. Because there is nothing to be gained from such attacks, except to distract their own people from the ruined Ukrainian economy, from the plight of many ordinary Ukrainians – that is the only reason.

Trying to provoke violence and conflict can only serve to divert public attention from those who seized power in Kiev, and still continue to usurp it and continue to rob their own people. [They’re playing dangerous games] in order to stay in power as long as possible, and loot as much as they possibly can.

But [both] their attempts failed, because their [cronies] turned out to be too incompetent. Of course, we will do everything we can to ensure the safety of infrastructure and citizens, take extra security measures. And I mean serious additional measures. Both technical, and otherwise.


But the most important thing is that those [Western governments] who support the current Kiev authorities must decide - what do they want? Do they want their proxies to continue attempting to provoke us? Or do they still want a real peace agreement? And if they still actually want it, I really hope that they finally take some real steps to provide necessary pressure on the current government in Kiev."

Actual speech (in Russian):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7OpSeOtYnU


Report on the details of provocation:
Fort Russ - FSB blames Ukrainian Defense Ministry for foiled terrorist plot in Crimea

Former acting Amerikan CIA director and Hillary Clinton supporter, Michael Morell openly conspires on public TV to commit raft of cowardly war crimes in Syria to "covertly" "kill Russians" and "scare Assad" by giving weapons to their opponents (Al Qaeda and ISIS).

Amid making these comments, ISIS and Al Qaeda have shot down at least 2 Russian helicopters and are turning up all over the battlefield with American-made TOW anti-tank missiles.

It should also be noted that the Amerikan invasion of Iraq was predicated on a premeditated lie. Russia's intervention in Syria was at the invitation of the legitimate sitting government, intervening in a fight against what are clearly designated terrorist organizations - even by Amerika's own admission.

Inept psychopaths have overrun Amerikan foreign policy, doing permanent damage to the nation it may NEVER recover from.

https://www.facebook.com/RussiaInsider/videos/1762669844003251/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYs_pfljaBE

Lucasbalo:
Because he got more sense in his finger than you got in your body. Russia doesn't give a fu/k about you and your homies. If you love Russia that much, move to Moscow .

Lol! Ok let me say it then: It makes you very much an id1ot as he is. This is the Foreign Affairs section, stoopid!

And I have no intention of moving to Russia or any other country for that matter. How my admiration of Putin mandates me to move to Russia is lost on me..... I don't get it.....

You really have to look for another valid, sensible attack line my dear Lucas....

Lucasbalo:
Thanks. Jobless people are so concerned with other countries that's got nothing to do with them and neglect their own backyard and country . Highest point of hypocrisy .

What does your petty aquiescence with the viewpoint expressed by an id1ot who stumbles into the Foreign Affairs section to complain why this foreign news should "concern us", make you?

Another last ditched attempt to save our beloved child headchopping & liver eating but nonetheless "feedom loving and democracy embracing" rebels

[size=18pt]U.S. neocons call to “bomb Assad”, no reason given[/size]



Alexander Mercouris
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS
4 hours ago 0 155
U.S. neocons are increasingly campaigning for bombing Syria without providing any rational reason or objective or explanation of why they want to do so.
The famous (and misunderstood) aphorism of Karl von Clausewitz, the great German military theorist, that “war is a mere continuation of politics by other means” is meeting its absolute negation in some of the commentary that is starting to appear in the US in relation to the Syrian war.



A succession of essays and articles has recently appeared, produced by US think-tanks and the US media, once again calling for the US to bomb the Syrian military (“bomb Assad”). This article in The New York Times is just one of many.

What is really quite extraordinary about this article and many others like it is that whilst calling for bombing Syria it gives no coherent reason for doing it. The nearest it comes to is saying that the bombing would be “punishment” for the Syrian government’s alleged violation of the truce that was agreed in February by the US and Russia.

That wars should never be waged to exact “punishment” but only in self-defence or with the authorisation of the UN Security Council is mentioned nowhere in the article. Nor of course is there any recognition that waging war for such a reason is actually illegal. Nor does the article say what the US should do if it were the rebels as opposed to the Syrian government who were violating the truce. Is the US supposed in that case to bomb the rebels as well? I doubt there is a single human being on earth who thinks the authors of the article would support that.

More to the point however is that nowhere in the article is there any clear explanation of what the bombing is supposed to achieve. Its utter detachment from reality is shown by its fantastic suggestions that such bombing would force the Russians “to make Assad behave” and that the US should only bomb “the Syrian military’s airfields, bases and artillery positions where no Russian troops are present”.

That trying to force someone to force someone else to behave by bombing that other person is not a credible way to fight a war ought to be obvious. How do the authors suppose the American and European publics would react to a bombing campaign launched to achieve such a nebulous objective? Besides how do the authors know how the Russians would react? What if “bombing Assad” does not “force” the Russians “to make Assad behave”? What if the Russians instead take steps to intercept the cruise missiles and drones which are carrying out the bombing – as it is fully within their technical competence to do, and as they are surely far more likely to do? What do the authors propose the US do in that case? Do they propose the US escalate the bombing to overcome the Russian defences or do they say that in that case the bombing should be called off? What is to prevent the Russians from sending Russian military observers to all “the Syrian military’s airfields, bases and artillery positions” that the US is intending to bomb? Would the authors, following the line set out in their article, say that in that case the bombing should be called off? Or would they in fact be far more likely to say that in that case the US should bomb the Russian troops as well?

Reading articles like this it is impossible to avoid the feeling that for some people in the US bombing Syria has now become an overwhelming obsession and an end in itself, so much so that they no longer even bother to justify or explain it in any half-ways rational way, and that they are prepared to take the most appalling risks in order to do it.

Here’s an update on ‘The Great Battle of Aleppo’

Alexander Mercouris
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS

Rebel advances in southwest Aleppo likely to be ephemeral.
News of the capture by Jihadi rebels led by Jabhat Al-Nusra on Saturday morning of a Syrian military technical college in the outskirts of Aleppo in what the rebels are now calling ‘the Great Battle of Aleppo’ has led to a rush of claims in the media that the siege of Aleppo had been broken.



These reports reflect a misunderstanding of the fighting around Aleppo. As I discussed previously the Syrian army and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies simply do not have the numbers to mount a siege of eastern Aleppo similar to a medieval siege. Here is what I said before:

“Here it is important to make some qualifications. This is not the sort of siege that used to happen in the Middle Ages when an army would surround a town or castle whose garrison and population would then be completely cut off from the outside world. The Syrian army does not have the manpower to besiege the rebels in Aleppo in that way. It cannot control every inch of the territory around Aleppo and there are still plenty of ways for rebel fighters both to enter and exit the area of the city they control.”
To conduct the sort of encirclement of eastern Aleppo some people in the media has been talking about the Syrian army and its allies would need a force of more than a hundred thousand men, which is probably more than the total number of men the Syrian army has under arms across the whole of Syria.

Given this lack of manpower it is inevitable that the Syrian military will face periods when it becomes overstretched and has to make tactical retreats in the face of overwhelming rebel attacks. This happened on several occasions during the Syrian military’s offensive in February when rebel counter-attacks for brief stretches of time succeeded in closing the road links to Aleppo. It happened again in March when rebel offensives near Aleppo led by Jabhat Al-Nusra temporarily recovered some ground.

If it is true that as many as 10,000 rebel fighters have been involved in the rebel offensive in south west Aleppo over the last week, then it is a certainty that the Syrian military in the area of the technical college has been heavily outnumbered. This was almost certainly the case even if the number of rebel fighters was much lower, closer to the lowest figure given, which is 3,500. Probably the total number of Syrian troops and Hezbollah fighters defending the technical college numbered no more than a few hundred men at most, with the greater part of the better units of the Syrian army that are located in and around Aleppo still positioned in its northern outskirts where they recently closed the Castello road.

When thousands of rebels stormed the college late on Friday night – apparently with the help of seven suicide bombers driving trucks laden with explosives – the Syrian troops and their Hezbollah allies defending the college kept themselves alive (and therefore able to fight another day) by sensibly retreating first to the northern part of the college and then by withdrawing from the college completely on Saturday morning. To have done otherwise would have invited a mass slaughter to no purpose, with the practice of the Jihadi fighters being to take no prisoners. As Frederick the Great is reputed to have said, he who defends everything defends nothing.

The point is that this is almost certainly an ephemeral victory achieved by the rebels at horrendous cost. The rebels cannot use the small corridor they have punched through the government lines to re-supply the rebels in eastern Aleppo to any great degree, since the corridor can be easily bombed and shelled by the Syrian military and the Russian air force. Any rebel units stationed at the college will quickly become a target for Syrian and Russian bombing and shelling, and reports say that this is already happening.

More important still is that in order to maintain the momentum of their offensive the rebels are having to pull in men and supplies from across Syria and to concentrate them in a confined space where they are becoming easy targets for the Russian air force. It is a common myth that the rebels can always replace their losses because they have unlimited numbers of jihadi fighters at their disposal. If that were true the rebels would have won the war in Syria long ago. In reality as previous wars in Chechnya and Iraq show the pool of such people is actually relatively small. If the rebel losses the Syrians and the Russians are claiming are anywhere close to being true, then the rebels simply will not be able to sustain this effort for very long. As the rebel effort slackens, repeating the pattern of previous battles fought in Syria over the last few months, the Syrian military will counter-attack, recovering all the ground it has lost (including the technical college) and gaining more besides. Already there are reports of Syrian army units and Hezbollah fighters being redeployed to the area, probably precisely in preparation for the launch of such a counter-offensive.

The essential point is that what is being fought in and around Aleppo is a battle of attrition, which without external intervention the rebels cannot win.

In addition the rebel offensive has demonstrated something else, which is politically important in the context of the continuous dialogue the Russians are having with the US and – perhaps even more importantly in the aftermath of the coup attempt – with President Erdogan of Turkey. At the time of the “cessation of hostilities” agreement in February the US agreed that Jabhat Al-Nusra is a terrorist organisation and that the rebels in Syria should dissociate themselves from it. This agreement – and therefore this demand – were subsequently enshrined in a Resolution of the UN Security Council, and is therefore binding on the Turks.

Not only have the rebels in Aleppo completely failed to dissociate themselves from Jabhat Al-Nusra but over the last few days they have enthusiastically joined an offensive in which Jabhat Al-Nusra under its new name has provided the leadership. The reason for that is of course that all the rebels in and around Aleppo either belong to Jabhat Al-Nusra or to groups associated with it and are all Jihadis. The “moderate rebels” supposedly holding out in Aleppo against overwhelming odds simply don’t exist outside the imaginations of certain Western politicians and Western writers.

The US and the Turks will of course try to counter that what has supposedly driven the “moderate rebels” in Aleppo to unite behind Jabhat Al-Nusra is the Syrian offensive and the Russian bombing. That is however a threadbare argument and in their private discussions with the Russians Kerry and Erdogan and their diplomats will both find that following the rebel offensive their argument has just been made weaker.

Take a look at this

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=848800225250754&id=347098038754311