Puppet Masters
The U.S. military has completed its own planning for how American troops would conduct a variety of operations against Syria, or to assist neighboring countries in the event action was ordered, officials tell CNN.
In recent weeks, the Pentagon has finalized its assessment of what types of units would be needed, how many troops, and even the cost of certain potential operations, officials tell CNN.
Multiple military officials say initial planning is complete with a full understanding of what types of troops and units would be needed. This has been done so that if President Obama were to ask for options the military would be ready to present them. But officials say additional detailed work would have to be done before forces could be deployed.
The planning comes as the U.S. has become increasingly concerned that the violence in Syria is verging on civil war. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the recent series of bombings have heightened the worry.
Dempsey said it reminded him of the escalating violence during the Iraq war.
In recent weeks, the Pentagon has finalized its assessment of what types of units would be needed, how many troops, and even the cost of certain potential operations, officials tell CNN.
Multiple military officials say initial planning is complete with a full understanding of what types of troops and units would be needed. This has been done so that if President Obama were to ask for options the military would be ready to present them. But officials say additional detailed work would have to be done before forces could be deployed.
The planning comes as the U.S. has become increasingly concerned that the violence in Syria is verging on civil war. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the recent series of bombings have heightened the worry.
Dempsey said it reminded him of the escalating violence during the Iraq war.
© Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
Lying through her teeth and without flinching, Hillary Clinton stands by her assertion that Russian attack helicopters are on their way to Syria.
Lying through her teeth and without flinching, Hillary Clinton stands by her assertion that Russian attack helicopters are on their way to Syria.
In the face of a strong denial from the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, stood by her assertion that Russian attack helicopters are on their way to Syria in a move that would "escalate the conflict quite dramatically".
The state department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, repeated the claim and ratcheted up the confrontation by saying that the Russians have also been resupplying arms used against the civilian population.
"On a daily basis, on an hourly basis, we are seeing Russian- and Soviet-made weaponry used against civilians in towns all across Syria," she said.
Comment: Lies and more lies, to hide the fact that the genocide in Syria is being directed by Western secret agencies and the blessings of the real Axis of Evil. And while the number of innocent people murdered in Syria is increasing by the day, the media war that the US is waging, makes victims by the second, those who believe these lies and are dead to the reality of the Syrian people's suffering and enemies.
Read also: 'Russia does not sell combat helicopters to Syria' - Lavrov
© Agence France-Presse/File, Mandel Ngan
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) poses with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L)
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) poses with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L)
Speaking in Tehran on Wednesday, Lavrov was unequivocal about Russia's military trade relationship with Syria, which is presently involved in protracted hostilities between pro-government and opposition forces.
"I already said during one of the news conference in Moscow several days ago that we are now finishing the fulfillment of contracts that were signed and paid for a long time ago. All of (the contracts) are solely for means of air defense," Lavrov told reporters in Tehran after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
Russia supplies Syria "only with something that Syria would need in the event of an armed attack on it from without," the minister added.
An American author says agents of the CIA and MI6 are directing armed groups to carry out massacres inside Syria, Press TV reports.
Stephen Lendman, writer and radio host from Chicago, said the CIA and MI6 "special forces" are in Syria now, directing massacres.
"They go after pro-Assad loyalists," Lendman stated in an interview with Press TV on Saturday.
"There is no question this is a Washington-orchestrated war."
Stephen Lendman, writer and radio host from Chicago, said the CIA and MI6 "special forces" are in Syria now, directing massacres.
"They go after pro-Assad loyalists," Lendman stated in an interview with Press TV on Saturday.
"There is no question this is a Washington-orchestrated war."
© Wikipedia
Home base: Many of the sites house smaller drones, like the WASP III, which has a wingspan of less than three feet
Home base: Many of the sites house smaller drones, like the WASP III, which has a wingspan of less than three feet
A new map released by Public Intelligence, a nonprofit group dedicated publishing public government data, reveals the ever-growing footprint of the Department of Defense's newest weapon.
The bases span the entire country -- 33 states either have a base already or are slated to have one.
The existence of a base doesn't necessarily mean drones are stationed there.
Wired Magazine reports some bases are remote cockpits, where soldiers fly the unmanned craft in the skies over Yemen and Afghanistan. Others are training facilities for prospective drone pilots. Others serve as depots where servicemen analyses data the remote-controlled spy planes bring back.
Interactive map.
Russia is sending armed troops to Syria amid escalating violence there, United States military officials told NBC News Friday, in a move certain to frustrate Western efforts to put pressure on the regime of President Bashir Assad.
Moscow has sent a ship carrying a small contingent of combat forces to guard Russia's deep-water port and military base at the Syrian city of Tartus, the US officials said.
The U.S. officials also said Russia has not sent additional attack helicopters to the Syrian government, but replacement parts for the Russian helicopters the Syrians are already flying.
It comes after the conflict was declared by France on Wednesday to be a full-blown civil war.
Comment: "Russia and China [a few key targets after Syria and Iran], both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with veto power, frustrated
How often do we have to hear more propaganda and manipulation? It's obvious that Syria is not a threat to anyone, so Western Governments turn this into a humanitarian crusade to overthrow the current Assad government, which will leave the door open for bastardizing Iran, and while Russia and China attempt to defend Syria, they will continue to be bastardized by Western media. Soon, I expect the United States will claim it is being bullied by Russia and China over the whole affair.
It sounds like Russia is saying: We allow what will be to be.
While the West sounds like: Once we put in a new Government..
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Henning Kaiser
Policemen load boxes into a car on Thursday during a raid at the Millatu Ibrahim Mosque in Solingen, western Germany.
Policemen load boxes into a car on Thursday during a raid at the Millatu Ibrahim Mosque in Solingen, western Germany.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he had banned the Salafist organization Millatu Ibrahim, saying that it has been calling on Muslims to fight against Germany's "constitutional order."
The raids, conducted by 850 police officers in seven of Germany's 16 states, focused on two other groups - DawaFFM and DWR, whose initials are the German abbreviation for "The True Religion" - to determine whether evidence exists to ban them as well.
Friedrich said a "comprehensive collection of evidence" had been seized - videos, laptops, cellphones and other things. "All these things will be evaluated over the coming days, and we will see to what extent the evidence is sufficient to ban the two organizations which are being investigated," he said.
© Geoff Pugh
Julian Assange
Julian Assange
The announcement was made today by the Supreme Court.
It is understood that Assange's legal team now has 14 days to apply to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to hear his case.
Dinah Rose QC, appearing for Assange, applied to the Supreme Court justices for permission to make further submissions, but they unanimously dismissed the application, saying it was "without merit".
On May 30, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-2 majority that Assange's extradition was lawful and could go ahead.
The Swedish authorities want Assange, 40, to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010 while on a visit to give a lecture.
© Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images
Egypt Protesters gesture at military police through a barbed wire barricade during a protest against presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq outside the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo, Egypt.
Egypt Protesters gesture at military police through a barbed wire barricade during a protest against presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq outside the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo, Egypt.
Judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak have dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament and ruled his former prime minister eligible for the presidential runoff election this weekend - setting the stage for the military and remnants of the old regime to stay in power.
Thursday's politically charged rulings dealt a heavy blow to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, with one senior member calling the decisions a "full-fledged coup", and the group vowed to rally the public against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak.
The decision by the Supreme Constitutional Court effectively erased the tenuous progress from Egypt's troubled transition in the past year, leaving the country with no parliament and concentrating power even more firmly in the hands of the generals who took over from Mubarak.
Several hundred people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square after the rulings to denounce the action and rally against Shafiq, the presidential candidate seen by critics as a symbol of Mubarak's autocratic rule. But with no calls by the Brotherhood or other groups for massive demonstrations, the crowd did not grow.
Comment: Read: General Wesley Clark Reveals US Plan To Invade Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, And Iran