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More boots: Ash Carter sending 'specialized expeditionary targeting force' to Iraq

Barbara Starr
CNN
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 16:19 UTC
Ash Carter
© Yuri Gripas
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Tuesday that the U.S. military will send "a specialized expeditionary targeting force" aimed at conducting more raids in Iraq.

A U.S. official tells CNN that decision means that there will be additional U.S. Special Operation forces on the ground in Iraq to fight ISIS.

Carter made the remarks testifying before the House Armed Services Committee.

"Next, in full coordination with the Government of Iraq, we're deploying a specialized expeditionary targeting force to assist Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and to put even more pressure on ISIL," Carter said. "These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders."
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Bomb

BBC HQ, site of new bomb scare


Press TV
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 03:33 UTC
flee
© unknown
The headquarters of the state-funded BBC and surrounding buildings in central London have been evacuated over bomb scare.
The staff at the state-funded BBC's headquarters of the state-funded BBC and surrounding buildings in central London have been evacuated briefly due to a suspicious vehicle.

The Metropolitan Police said the alert, which is now over, was not specific to the BBC, and related to a vehicle parked on nearby Regent's Street.

In addition to the BBC, Portland Place in central London is also home to the Chinese and Polish embassies, Kenyan High Commission and the Royal Institute of British Architects, as well as several schools and hotels.

Comment: Interesting timing with the UK motion to airstrike ISIL in Syria on the quick table for passing. Reason? ISIL is now a "terrorist threat to the UK." Voila.

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Jet1

To bomb or not to bomb: Motion for Syrian airstrikes approved by UK cabinet


Press TV
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 01:40 UTC
UK cabinet
© presstv.ir
UK cabinet: Motion to extend airstrikes into Syria
The UK cabinet has approved a motion to pave the way for the country to extend its airstrikes against ISIL militants from Iraq to Syria. The motion was approved unanimously by the cabinet ministers at their weekly meeting, devoted entirely to Syria.
The motion says that ISIL presents a direct threat to the UK, that it presents an unprecedented threat to international peace and security. It also says that the increased military action is legal in line with the UN charter.
The ministers said it is "illogical" to carry out strikes in Iraq but not Syria as ISIL militants don't recognize the border between the countries. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said the UK is already a target for ISIL extremists and the threat has "intensified". The motion is set to be voted on Wednesday.


Comment: This is complicated. You have an "enemy" who doesn't recognize borders - how convenient. You have a counter-strike country that, by international law, is supposed to recognize and abide by borders...but is independently electing to forego that restriction and invade. It seems sovereign status is dwindling down to a precious few, and we can guess who they are.


Comment: We must ask: how big a threat is ISIL to the UK, or any other country supporting it? The Russians are systematically taking care of ISIL in Syria, removing that "threat to the UK." This is mostly about fear perception management of its citizenry and the global opinion of the UK, not about deactivating ISIL for self protection.

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Bad Guys

Bellicose senators: The real reason for boots on the ground in Syria


PressTV
Mon, 30 Nov 2015 11:21 UTC
Image
"The US Republican senators who seek troop deployment in Syria are in pursuit of driving Russia out of the Arab country and establishing America's foothold there", says an army veteran.

Former US Army Psychological Warfare officer Scott Bennett told Press TV's Website on Monday that the latest call by senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham for US boots in Syria showed their "aberrant and distasteful element of American politics."

His comments come on the heels of a Reuters report that Republicans McCain and Graham pushed on Sunday for Washington to nearly triple the US military force levels in Iraq to 10,000, and send an equal number of troops to Syria to 'counter' Daesh (ISIL) terrorists in both countries.

Comment: Could it be that Russian support against ISIL in Syria throws a monkey wrench into the fold? If the sole intention of the US in Syria was to eradicate ISIL then Russia's efficiency in dealing with ISIL is a non-issue. However, if the presence of ISIL supports a motive for a regime change that benefits the US then it becomes clear as to why the US would rather Russia not help.

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Pirates

Former US military chief: US war on Iraq was a blunder that created Daesh


Press TV
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 03:26 UTC
Flynn
© www.thedailybeast.com
Lt. General Michael Flynn: Iraq war was "a huge error!"
The Daesh Takfiris wreaking hovic in Iraq and Syria were created due to the United States' erroneous policies that included the 2003 Iraq War, says a former US military chief.

In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel published Sunday, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, 56, former US special forces commander in Iraq and Afghanistan referred to the war as "a huge error." "The George W. Bush administration's Iraq war was a tremendous blunder that helped to create the self-proclaimed Daesh," he said.
"As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him," Flynn noted. "The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state. The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that decision."
He pointed to the rise of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and how the blinding emotions of September 11 led the United States in the wrong direction strategically. "When 9/11 occurred, all the emotions took over, and our response was, 'Where did those bastards come from? Let's go kill them. Let's go get them,'" he said.

According to the former military chief, instead of determining why the US was attacked by terrorists, the Bush administration was looking at where the terrorists came from and locations to attack.

"Then," Flynn said, "We strategically marched in the wrong direction."

Comment: More and more, the truths of the recent past and those today are finding their way to the surface and some are coming back to bite. It doesn't take a tactical genius to see the writing on the wall.

It begs the question: If you are driving down the road to a particular destination and you discover you have made a "wrong turn," 1) do you keep on driving? 2) do you assess the possibilities and take a different route or reverse course?, or 3) is the "wrong" destination, perhaps, the one you wanted all along...

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HAL9000

ISIS trucks transporting oil are 'civilian targets' says the US


PressTV
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 13:58 UTC
ISIS oil Tankers
© AFP/Getty Images
According to the US these oil tankers owned by ISIS, tasked with transporting petrol for sale outside regions under the terrorists’ control in Iraq and Syria are civilian targets!
A prominent Iraqi official says his request from the United States to target Daesh trucks that carry the Iraqi and Syrian oil for sale out of the countries has failed to bear any result as Washington considers them "civilian targets."

Amid Moscow's recent objections to Turkey's role in the sale of the oil stolen by the Takfiri terrorists, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, made the remarks to Sputnik Monday, suggesting that the US intentionally ignores the illegal oil sale.

"I have personally contacted US representatives asking them to target ISIL trucks transporting Iraqi and Syrian oil to Turkey only to be told that those were civilian targets so they could not attack them," said Rubaie, a leader of the State of Law Coalition party in the Iraqi parliament and former national security adviser.

Comment: The US tells Russia to concentrate on ISIS and not civilian targets. The US ignores ISIS targets and calls them civilian targets. In other words, they are really just protecting IS's financing by Turkey and thus are accessories to terrorism. Nice to have that cleared up by the US! It also explains why the US has not targeted these huge columns of tankers illegally transporting oil from Syria to Turkey. See also:Always the last to know: Did Turkish government find out about shoot-down of Russian jet after the fact?

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Gold Seal

Does Putin think 'man-made global warming' is a fraud?

Robert
Ice Age Now
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:17 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been casting doubt on man-made global warming since the early 2000s, according to the New York Times.
Putin believes that "this is a fraud to restrain the industrial development of several countries, including Russia," says Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and Putin critic.

According to Andrey Illarionov, Putin's former senior economic adviser, the Russian leader's staff "did very, very extensive work trying to understand all sides of the climate debate."

"We found that, while climate change does exist, it is cyclical, and the anthropogenic role is very limited," said Illarionov.
Gee. What a concept. "Climate change does exist, it is cyclical, and the anthropogenic role is very limited."

Looks like the Russians refuse to be hoodwinked by all the propaganda.

Comment: The relevant text from the NYT article:
The president believes that "there is no global warming, that this is a fraud to restrain the industrial development of several countries including Russia," says Stanislav Belkovsky, a political analyst and critic of Putin. "That is why this subject is not topical for the majority of the Russian mass media and society in general."
and
"We found that, while climate change does exist, it is cyclical, and the anthropogenic role is very limited," he said. "It became clear that the climate is a complicated system and that, so far, the evidence presented for the need to 'fight' global warming was rather unfounded."
Note this this comes from a Putin critic. It would be great if Putin actually saw behind the lies of anthropogenic global warning, but this could just be an attempt to smear Putin and place him in the "global warming denier" camp.

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Eiffel Tower

Top French weatherman fired for exposing global warming scam joins RT to cover Paris climate summit


RT
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 12:35 UTC
Image
Well-known French meteorologist Philippe Verdier was fired from a national TV channel after publishing a book challenging the mainstream narrative on climate change. He is now able to do just that on RT France, covering the UN climate summit in Paris.

Verdier has thanked RT for the opportunity, saying that the Russian channel has enabled him to exercise his freedom of speech.

"Thanks to RT in Paris I can do my job of journalist and have the freedom of speech, and I can cover as I want, the COP21 [Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change]," Verdier told RT.


Comment: Another brilliant, albeit small, asymmetric counter-move by the Russians! Verdier was fired precisely because his book was published in the run-up to the event, and they would not allow his views to be associated with any coverage of the event.

But now he's going to be front and center thanks to RT!
See also:

Je ne suis pas Charlie? French government fires TV weatherman for publishing book critical of man-made global warming ahead of COP21 in Paris
Does the Russian government believe the global warming lie, or use it for the same 'grab-and-control' reasons as Western governments? Probably not. They appear to pay it lip service because, after all, to be a 'denialist' is equivalent to being a 'murderer of polar bears and bunny rabbits', but they have probably figured out that climate change follows natural cycles, and that Western elites are using the notion that man regulates this mechanism in order to tax people into grinding poverty and block industrial development in non-Western countries.
See also:

Putin claims Russia over-fulfilled Kyoto Protocol, 'slowing down global warming for a year', but does he really believe that?

Putin believes global warming is a fraud - 'fighting it would be unfounded'


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Question

What's cooking in Serbia: A cup full of Balkan complexities, a pinch of Kosovo terrorists, a dash of NATO... - is coup d'etat on the menu?

Stevan Gajic
Katenon.com
Tue, 01 Dec 2015 09:37 UTC
Image
A series of violent protests continue to shake the Serbian breakaway province of Kosovo-Metochia. This time it was an intra-Albanian conflict. Protests are organised by the opposition led by Ramush Haradinaj — former terrorist warlord, notorious war criminal, former PM of the separatist 'government', also a leader of the political party Alliance for the Future of Kosovo — together with Albin Kurti, relatively young leader of the more radical Self-Determination party which advocates formal unification of Kosovo-Metochia with Albania.

These protests are organised against one of the clauses of the so-called Brussels Agreement, the one that guaranties the formation of the Community of Serbian Municipalities in the NATO-occupied province. Although most of the Brussels Agreement is in favour of the separatists, the ethnic Albanian opposition sees this as a compromise with Belgrade and a defeat of the Albanian side, maybe actually having a point in that.

After the separatist authorities of Kossovo-Metochia and their sponsors failed to secure membership in UNESCO on 9 November, thanks to Russian in the first place, but also to Serbian diplomacy and successful lobbying, there is a sense of lost confidence among the separatist Albanians. It seems this was the point where things started to fall apart for the separatists.
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Vader

The Iraq War is not unique. It's just the latest episode in a 100-year-old struggle

Mark Steel
The Independent
Thu, 26 Nov 2015 03:10 UTC
turkmen fighters syria
© Reuters
Syrian Turkmen fighters are seen with an anti-aircraft artillery weapon near the northern Syrian village of Yamadi on 24 November 2015
The Government hasn't grasped the extent to which Western governments are so discredited

This looks simple enough then. We'll bomb the same people as Putin is bombing, in the same places, co-ordinated with Putin. But we won't actually be on the same side as Putin, and maybe we'll make that clear by painting gay rainbow flags on our bombs.

And we're backing Turkey - although we're not backing Turkey when they sneakily align with Isis against the Kurds, but that's easy to get round. We'll arrange a job share. Isis can have them on Mondays to Wednesdays, then we'll get them from Thursday until Saturday, and on Sundays they can have the day off or back someone else such as the Cornish nationalists.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond explained it clearly, when he answered Dennis Skinner's question "Is Turkey a reliable ally, given that it shot down a Russian jet, and has assisted Isis against the Kurds?" Hammond replied "I see that old habits die hard, and the Honourable Gentleman remains an apologist for Russian actions."

This must mean we are supporting Turkey, against Russia as well as on the days they're opposing Isis, though we're on Russia's side when they're against Isis so we could end up supporting and opposing Russia and Turkey against each other at the same time, causing us to fall through a break in space and we'll have to be rescued by Doctor Who.

To simplify matters even more, Hammond seems to suggest it's a disgrace to defend Russia's shameful action of its plane being shot down. Look at the litter they've caused, they could have crashed more tidily. Is it any wonder we're never on their side except for when we're on their side?

Comment: Would that this were only satire, rather than the truth of the matter. The West is being run by buffoons that Putin must alternately coax and shame into something resembling constructive action.

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