After voting to fund military action against Islamic State, Congress just couldn't take anymore. The US House announced Thursday an early end to an already shortened fall session so lawmakers could do what they value most: campaign for reelection.

This week, the House and Senate both approved President Barack Obama's request to arm so-called "moderate" rebel groups in Syria as part of a plan to step up the US military campaign against Islamic State militants. That was about all Congress could muster.

Though the House was supposed to remain in Washington through the first week of October, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told representatives on Thursday that they are off the hook until after the early November congressional elections. The Senate followed suit after approving the war funding on Thursday.

The abbreviated fall session means Congress will have only been on the job in Washington for only about eight days from the end of July through the middle of November.

Let's do the math here: The 113th Congress is historically unproductive in the amount of legislative actions taken. This is, in part, why the body is perennially rated as unpopular. Earlier this month, Gallup found that Congress had a 14-percent approval rating, one of the lowest in the past 40 years.

[Quick note: I want to begin this SITREP with a correction to something which I mentioned in the last SITREP abouy General Bezler: even though his signature did appear to figure on the infamous statement of the four commanders declaring their loyalty to "General" Korsun, the information that he had been arrested is, according so sources qualified as "solid" by Colonel Cassad, not true. Since I have no reason to doubt Cassad's sources, I assume that this is true. I have no idea why/how Bezler's signature was found on this document, maybe it was a fake? Either way, Bezler even made a short video today making fun of Ukie not-so-special forces. In contrast, Korsun's arrest is apparently confirmed. Now let's turn to the SITREP proper - The Saker]

War?

The big event of the week was, I think, Poroshenko's speech to what I call the Imperial Senate (aka Joint Session of Congress). I have made the full transcript available here and here. I don't think that it is worth carefully parsing this text, so I will just mention the few elements which are absolutely obvious to me:

1) This text was written by a US Neocon. It even included such typical US-propaganda gimmicks as the "personal story" to give a human touch and moment carefully crafted to generate applause. So not only what the author of this rant American, but he/she was for sure a diehard Neocon.

2) This text was a lame attempt at copying Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech, except that Poroshenko is no Churchill, Putin no Stalin and Novorussia no Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the message was clear: Russia represents a planetary threat to freedom, democracy, liberty, human rights, free speech, etc. In fact, according to Poroshenko the choice is not between two civilizations but between civilization and barbaric darkness.

3) The US deep state is by now clearly aware of the immense challenge presented to it by Putin's "Eurasian Sovereignist" Russia and the movement it leads (BRICS+SCO+etc.). The fact that it has to use such absolutely over the top rhetoric is a clear sign of fear and the Neocons are now freaking out. The danger for them is becoming very real (more about that below).

4) More than anything else, this speech proved to me that the only viable goal for Russia is regime change in Kiev. This is a message I will hammer in over and over again - regime change in Kiev is a vital, arguable existential, priority for Russia.

5) Far from being any kind of patriots or nationalists, the Ukie "nationalists" are subservient puppets of the West, willing to service AngloZionist interests with less shame then an old prostitute services her clients. For all the "Glory to the Ukraine, to the Heroes Glory!" slogans, the Ukies are the cheapest prostitutes on the planet with no self-respect whatsoever.

100,000 troops and 5,000 weapons involved in the exercises in the Eastern Military District.

Codenamed Vostok-2014, the exercises were heralded by NTV channel as 'the biggest since Soviet times'.

'About 100,000 servicemen, up to 1,500 tanks, 120 aircraft, 5,000 pieces of weaponry, military and special hardware, and 70 ships will take part,' said a Russian defence ministry spokesman.

Starting on Friday 19 September, they will continue until Thursday 25 September.

The absence of America's so-called "intelligence" regarding the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 over Ukraine in a 34 page Dutch Safety Board preliminary report raises serious questions about the credibility and legitimacy of both America's political agenda, and all agencies, organizations, and political parties currently behind it.

The report titled, "Preliminary Report: Crash involving Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200 flight MH17″ (.pdf), cites a wide variety of evidence in its attempt to determine the cause of flight MH17′s crash and to prevent similar accidents or incidents from occurring again in the future. Among this evidence includes the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the flight data recorder (FDR), analysis of recorded air traffic control (ATC) surveillance data and radio communication, analysis of the meteorological circumstances, forensic examination of the wreckage (if recovered and possible foreign objects if found), results of the pathological investigation, and analysis of the in-flight break up sequence.

Up to 40 radicalized US citizens who have fought alongside terrorists of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) have already returned to the United States and could pose a real terrorist threat, says Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.).

Of the hundred or so Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State's ranks, some 40 have returned and are currently being surveilled by the FBI, Bishop said in a recent speech.

"It is not yet a threat to the homeland, but there is a concern that it could metastasize in such a way that it could become a threat," he warned.

The lawmaker also expressed concert that jihadist fighters could clandestinely enter the United States through the porous southern border.

Houthi rebels overrun the capital battling army units for control of a suburb, leaving at least 80 dead
Yemenis awoke to the sound of gunfire and explosions on Friday morning as a Shiite rebel group from Yemen's north, overran the capital and battled army units with heavy weapons for control of a Sanaa suburb.

At least 80 people were killed, residents and doctors told Middle East Eye, when Houthi militants and soldiers from the Islamist-allied First Armoured Division fired rockets and mortars at each other in the north of the capital near Yemen's state television channel offices.

Phone networks and internet were shut off and international flights to Yemen were suspended as the fighting encroached on the country's main airport, authorities said.

Officials supported the extremist group's Syrian wing in a failed attempt to moderate extremists, according to Francis Ricciardone
Turkey has directly supported al-Qaeda's wing in Syria in defiance of the United States, the former American ambassador to Ankara has said.

The Turkish authorities thought they could work with extremist Islamist groups in the Syrian civil war and at the same time push them to become more moderate, Francis Ricciardone, who was until late June the US ambassador to Ankara, told journalists in a briefing.

That led them to work with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's branch, as well as hardline Salafi Islamist groups like Ahrar al-Sham. Mr Ricciardone said that he tried to persuade the Turkish government to close its borders to the groups, but to no avail.


"We ultimately had no choice but to agree to disagree," he said. "The Turks frankly worked with groups for a period, including al Nusra, whom we finally designated as we're not willing to work with."

Turkey allowed its borders to be used as a conduit for aid, weapons and volunteers heading for the Syrian rebel cause from the start of the uprising, and there have long been accusations that it did not do enough to distinguish between "moderate" groups and extremists.

Borders which link up to territory occupied by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants should be closed as part of international efforts to defeat the group, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview with Al Arabiya News Channel on Friday.

In the interview, which aired the same day, Kerry said that the U.S. had secured "significant guarantees" from American allies in the Middle East.

"We must shut borders," he said. "There are guarantees to help on foreign fighters, on financing, on borders - border control, on military, on aid, training, and even on direct military action."

Kerry also praised Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who he described as being "absolutely critical" in the fight against ISIS.

"Baghdad and others within Iraq as a whole should say thank you to the Peshmerga who have been essential in the fight of taking back Mosul Dam, of holding the line so that ISIL couldn't go to Erbil," he said.

Sott.net editors Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley analyze global impact events that shape our world and future, and connect the dots to reveal the bigger picture obscured by mainstream programming.

From the crisis in Ukraine to the ISIS in Iraq, from increasingly extreme weather to surviving in a world ruled by psychopaths, your hosts, their colleagues (and occasional guests) explore the deeper truths driving world events by exposing the manipulations behind what passes for 'news'.

The Scottish Independence Referendum result - beautiful democracy at work, or rigged? How on earth did Scots turn down the chance of an era to gain independence from London? The SOTT crew investigates...

Running Time: 01:54:00

Download: MP3

Since July 2014, the Obama-backed Free Syrian Army, Al Nusra Front, and ISIS have paired together in order to fight the Syrian Assad regime.

According to one Free Syrian Army commander, the combining of forces with ISIS was needed in order to achieve "the greater good."

Since around that time ISIS has traveled around the Caliphate in their brand new Toyota Hilux trucks.

Paid for by US taxpayers.
Now this...

The Obama Administration is paying "vetted" Syrian rebels monthly salaries.

Officials said the Obama administration has approved "tens of millions of dollars" to pay the salaries of police officers who joined the rebels.

The US is paying defected Syrian police officers $150 a month to fight with the rebels.