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'We weren't ready for this': Daesh deploys weaponized drones


Sputnik
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 05:49 UTC
File Photo/AP
© File Photo/AP
Violent extremist groups in the Middle East, including Daesh, have reportedly begun to weaponize drones, using them on the battlefield to kill, according to a source in the US military.

There has been plenty of evidence that extremist groups in the region, including Daesh and Hamas, use a variety of surveillance drones to collect information and to improve precision targeting. Most of the groups, except for the Iran-backed Hezbollah, only have access to commercial or hobbyist drones generally available online. Those cost upwards of $3,000 and don't weigh enough to support a large bomb or rocket.

But newly surfaced video demonstrates that the groups have now weaponized their drones. Footage belonging to an al-Qaeda branch, Jund al-Aqsa, purportedly shows a drone landing on Syrian military barracks. In another video, bomblets presumably dropped by Hezbollah hit a camp of the Sunni militant group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.

Comment: We wondered, years ago, why 'the terrorists' hadn't started weaponizing drones.



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Bullseye

Motives for 'intentional' Connecticut plane crash investigated by FBI


RT
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 05:43 UTC
Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters
© Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters
Wreckage is removed from the scene of a twin-engine plane that struck a utility pole and burst into flames in downtown East Hartford, Connecticut U.S., October 12, 2016
Investigators concluded that a small passenger plane that crashed in Connecticut on Tuesday was "an intentional act." Police and FBI are looking into the possible motives of the 28-year-old pilot.

Investigators concluded that a small passenger plane that crashed in Connecticut on Tuesday was "an intentional act." Police and FBI are looking into the possible motives of the 28-year-old pilot.

"All windows are open at this point," East Hartford police Lt. Josh Litwin told reporters on Wednesday.
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Pirates

Tortured Guantanamo Bay prisoner 'granted' rectal surgery after CIA torture-by-sodomy


RT
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 05:16 UTC
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
© Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Charged in connection with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Guantanamo detainee Mustafa al-Hawsawi will reportedly miss a pretrial hearing Friday in order to "rest up" for rectal surgery to repair damage caused by CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Walter Ruiz, a Navy Reserve officer and defense attorney for al-Hawsawi, confirmed late Monday that his client would undergo the medical procedure to treat a rectal prolapse that has caused bleeding for about a decade. While the operation will be performed at 9:00pm, after court hours, Ruiz also confirmed that al-Hawsawi will waive his right to appear in that day's portion of the pretrial hearing, so that he can rest beforehand, the Miami Herald reported.

The 48-year-old Saudi Arabian detainee stands accused, along with four other Guantanamo Bay detention camp detainees, of aiding the 19 hijackers who killed nearly 3,000 people when planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001. Their trial date has yet to be set, but pretrial hearings are underway.

Comment: American human rights in action: the prisoner was 'granted the right to' surgery.

What a psychoapthic society the US has become that Americans are ok with it all.

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Bell

Russia & US will engage in 'global war', unless 'proxy' Syria conflict resolved - Turkey's deputy PM


RT
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 04:49 UTC
Reuters
© Reuters
The Syrian conflict has now become a "proxy war" between the two Cold War superpowers, believes Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Numan Kurtulmus, who warned that that the conflict could escalate beyond the Middle East.
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Jet4

Russian submarines, strategic missile troops test fire 3 long-range ballistic rockets


RT
Thu, 13 Oct 2016 04:46 UTC
The Topol M missile system Sputnik
© Sputnik
Russia has successfully conducted three separate ballistic rocket launches. Two tests were carried out by Russian submarines from the Northern and Pacific fleets, while another intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk space center.

All of the tests were carried out as part of combat readiness drills and had successfully hit designated targets, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday.

From the Sea of Okhotsk, nuclear submarine Georgiy Pobedonosets from Russia's Pacific Fleet launched a ballistic missile into the Chizha target range located in northern Russia.

The submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) managed to successfully hit the target at a designated time, the Ministry of Defense said, adding that the rocket was launched from a Project 667BDR Kalmar Class vessel that was positioned under water.
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Mail

And they just keep coming: Wikileaks releases batch 4 & 5 of Podesta emails


RT
Wed, 12 Oct 2016 22:06 UTC
john podesta clinton campaign
© Brendan Smialowski / Agence France-Presse
John Podesta, Clinton Campaign Chairman.
WikiLeaks has released the fifth batch of emails from the private account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, containing 673 messages.

This is the first time the whistleblower website has published two batches of the Podesta emails in the same day, following the release of 1,193 messages earlier on Wednesday.

WikiLeaks claims to have 50,000 messages in total, and has been releasing them since last Friday. The previous releases have revealed the campaign's cozy relationship with the media, resentment at the primary campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, attack strategies targeting Republican candidate Donald Trump, disparaging comments about Catholics and Southerners, and even talk of space aliens.

Wall Street

In January 2016, Clinton speechwriter Dan Schwerin emailed Jennifer Palmieri about handling Wall Street and Sanders in an upcoming speech,"In particular, she's keen to find a way to keep going after him on Wall Street [she's convinced his plan is naive and unworkable] as part of a broader indictment," he said.

"I liked messing with Bernie on wall street at a staff level for the purposes of muddying the waters and throwing them off their game a bit," she said. "But don't know that it is most effective contrast for her. Seems like we are picking the fight he wants to have."

Communications advisor Mandy Grunwald replied, "I agree with you. Bernie wants a fight on a Wall Street. We should not give him one. Our polling shows this is one of our weakest areas. Further, our Wall Street approach has always been to agree about the problem, show passion about it, and say we have a better approach to holding the rascals accountable."

"We don't need to prove he's bad on Wall Street - that's not really credible. We need to prove we're ok. Most of all, we don't want this fight," she added.

Comment: Zero Hedge's Tyler Durden weighs in:
Meanwhile, it may be time for the Clinton campaign to release another tape. The impact of Friday's "Trump Tape" is dissipating and at this rate, the media may find it difficult to keep the audience's attention redirected exclusively to Trump.
media covrage trump clinton
As a reminder, the latest release comes after John Podesta did not deny the authenticity of the emails, but was quick to blame everyone from Trump, to Wikileaks to the Russians for the ongoing bombardment.
[...]

Cited by AFP, Podesta described the timing of the leak, which came late on Friday, as a "curious coincidence", coming shortly after The Washington Post published a shock video of Donald Trump making lewd boasts about groping women in 2005. Alternatively, one can say that the release of the Trump tapes came as a "curious coincidence" just as Wikileaks would reveal what much of the right of center audience was so interested in.
[...]

Pressed on why Clinton has had a "softer" attitude in her private remarks to Wall Street about the need for regulations after the 2008 financial crash than she did as a candidate, Podesta disagreed. "What she says in private and what she says in public is that she will crack down on Wall Street abuses," he said. "She said you know your industry best. That doesn't mean regulators can't crack down on them."

Podesta declined to answer most questions about those e-mails, saying, "I'm not confirming the validity of the e-mails."
"Whether that was Mr Assange's decision to try to help Mr Trump or whether there was some coordination involved, I have no way of knowing. I'm just saying, it's an awfully curious coincidence that it happened virtually as soon as the water temperature was moving to a boil," Podesta told journalists aboard a campaign plane traveling from Miami to New York. Padesta added: "We can't confirm the accuracy of those leaks, we know that the Russians might have passed on doctored documents."

"I would say that the Russian interference in this election and their apparent attempt to influence it on behalf of Mr Trump should be of utmost concern to all Americans."
Translation: the leaks were correct, and while we have no idea who is behind them, we will just blame the Russians - after all, how can they possibly retaliate with diplomatic conditions already dreadful.


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Map

Syrian peace moves: Rebels hand over weapons for evacuation from towns east of Damascus

Zen Adra
Al-Masdar News
Wed, 12 Oct 2016 23:20 UTC
Aleppo
Armed militants in western Damascus handed over their heavy and medium weaponry to the Syrian authorities as part of a deal they had made earlier this week to be evacuated from Al-Hama and Qudsaya.

According to the agreement, rebels are supposed to turn in their light weapons tomorrow - Thursday - before being transferred to the northwestern province of Idlib on Friday.

Some 150 militants with their families are expected to leave the two besieged towns to the west of the Syrian capital.

However, the 400 militants who chose to stay will have their cases settled.

In August, Syrian government forces entered the rebel-held suburb of Daraya after rebels and their families had been evacuated under a similar agreement.
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Snakes in Suits

France's Hollande unhappy: 'US not powerful enough to bring peace to Syria, financially discriminates against EU companies'


RT
Wed, 12 Oct 2016 21:55 UTC
French President Francois Hollande
© Stephane De Sakutin / Reuters
The US is strong enough to financially discriminate against European companies, but it lacks the capacity to bring peace to Syria, French President Francois Hollande said.

"The US has enough power to get money, but not enough - to establish peace (in Syria)," Hollande told L'Obs magazine on Wednesday.

In his interview, the French leader slammed Washington for imposing multibillion dollar fines on major European companies, while, at the same time, shielding American firms.

As for the situation in Syria, Hollande said that he doesn't expect any decisive actions from the US until the end of the year because US President Barack Obama, who promised not to engage US in new conflicts abroad, will soon be leaving office.
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Briefcase

Negotiations for militants to surrender east Aleppo under way

Leith Fadel
Al-MasdarNews
Wed, 12 Oct 2016 23:14 UTC
militants surrender Aleppo
Negotiations to surrender the rebel-held east Aleppo pocket have begun between the Syrian Arab Army's High Command and Islamist groups, a local source told Al-Masdar News on Wednesday afternoon.

The two parties are currently negotiating the possible exit of all Islamist groups from east Aleppo, via the contested Bustan Al-Qasir District.

If the Islamist groups agree to the terms offered in today's negotiations, the Syrian Armed Forces will be in full-control of some east Aleppo neighborhoods.

While the Syrian Armed Forces have found some rebel groups to negotiate with, large Islamist factions like Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki and Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) refuse to speak to the government and their Russian allies.
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Radar

Is the Taiwan Strait situation deteriorating?

Vladimir Terehov
New Eastern Outlook
Wed, 12 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
taiwan strait
Information that appeared in the Taiwanese media on September 20 on the termination of the program to develop medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles designed to strike Shanghai and Beijing was not the only reason to discuss the situation in the Taiwan Strait after the presidential elections that took place on the isle in January 2016, but the most serious and newsworthy one.

It is worth mentioning that Taiwan's program aimed at creating its own missile capability for containing the Mainland was launched immediately after the so-called "third crisis" in the Taiwan Strait, which developed with varying intensity in 1994-1995.

Over the course of this crisis, the PRC demonstrated its willingness to solve the Taiwan problem using military means. For particularly sensitive experts of that time, this was a sign that the historical cycle (that had almost come to an end) had been restarted and had started to acquire a new format with new major participants.

The aforementioned program continued under all the subsequent presidents of Taiwan including Ma Ying-jeou, representing the Kuomintang Party in 2008-2016, who enjoyed the special favour of Beijing. The reason for the (relatively rare) disagreements between the Chinese leadership and President Ma was not so much the varied output of Taiwan's own (quite active) military-industrial complex, but its continuing military and technical cooperation with the United States.
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