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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Attention

US-Russia, post INF Treaty: What should Europeans fear?

soldier Romania base
© Global Look Press/dpa/Kay Nietfeld
US soldier at the first base to be part of NATO missile shield, Deveselu, Romania
Despite termination of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty soon, deployment of new missiles is unlikely but a disrupted security environment may give rise to provocative incidents "inviting" Russia to "partake." Given that there is a low probability that the US will change its stance of issuing ultimatums to Russia, the treaty will be terminated in August.

Although the INF didn't reflect the current global order as it applied only to the US and the successor states of the Soviet Union, European nations perceived it as a security guarantee against dangerous military buildups on their soil. Hence, its ripples may affect Europe.

However, the development and deployment of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500-5500km is ruled out in the short-term. And here are the reasons:

Comment: See also:


Star of David

Israel scrambles for influence in Africa, selling water, weapons and lies

Netanyahu/map
© Change.org
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
For years, Kenya has served as Israel's gateway to Africa. Israel has been using the strong political, economic and security relations between the two states as a way to expand its influence on the continent and turn other African nations against Palestine. Unfortunately, Israel's strategy seems, at least on the surface, to be succeeding - Africa's historically vocal support for the Palestinian struggle on the international arena is dwindling.

The continent's rapprochement with Israel is unfortunate, because, for decades, Africa has stood as a vanguard against all racist ideologies, including Zionism - the ideology behind Israel's establishment on the ruins of Palestine. If Africa succumbs to Israeli enticement and pressure to fully embrace the Zionist state, the Palestinian people would lose a treasured partner in their struggle for freedom and human rights.

But all is not lost

Last month, I visited Kenya's capital city Nairobi to partake in discussions with the country's journalists, intellectuals, human rights activists and ordinary citizens in an effort to counter some of the propaganda inflicted by Israel's hasbara machine in recent years. Keeping Israel's success in penetrating various layers of the Kenyan society in mind, I also wanted to explore whether there is still some potential for solidarity.

I was pleasantly surprised at the end of my visit, as I discovered that Israel's "success story" in Kenya and the rest of Africa is a superficial one and the affinity between Africa and Palestine is far too deep for any "charm offensive" by Israel to easily eradicate.

X

Alastair Campbell: 'Jeremy Corbyn, I no longer wish to be a member of your Labour party'

Alastair Campbell
© skynews
Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell, the former No 10 director of communications under Tony Blair, has said he no longer wishes to be a Labour member, warning that Jeremy Corbyn is poised to lose the next election against Boris Johnson and destroy the party "as a political force capable of winning power".

Campbell had planned to fight his expulsion from Labour for revealing that he voted Liberal Democrat in the European elections, but he has now written to Corbyn informing him: "With some sadness but absolute certainty, I have reached the conclusion that I no longer wish to stay in the party, even if I should be successful in my appeal or legal challenge."

The former Labour adviser and campaigner for a "people's vote" has written a lengthy missive to Corbyn, part-published in the Guardian and in full in the New European, setting out his view that the party will not win a majority against Johnson, who he says is "embarked on a crash and burn strategy" designed to win a mandate for hard Brexit at the ballot box. Campbell wrote:
"The culture you have helped to create has made the party one that I feel no longer truly represents my values, or the hopes I have for Britain. I see no strategy in place that remotely meets the electoral or policy challenges ahead. On the contrary, in so far as I ascertain a strategy at all, it is one that looks more designed to lose. I fear the country may already have decided that it does not intend to make you prime minister."

Arrow Up

John Ratcliffe's appointment as investigator of the Holy Land Foundation case confirmed by former federal prosecutor

Rep John Ratcliffe
© CNN.com
Rep. John Ratcliffe
A former federal prosecutor involved in the terrorism financing trial against the Holy Land Foundation confirmed to The Federalist today that Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, whom President Donald Trump has said he intends to nominate as director of national intelligence, did receive a special appointment as part of the case.

"John was appointed to look into allegations of potential misconduct involving a juror and one or more of the defendants in that case," Nathan Garrett, a formal federal prosecutor who worked on the trial team, told The Federalist Tuesday morning. "John is a stellar lawyer, experienced national security prosecutor and leader, and a man of the highest character."

ABC News alleged in an article that Ratcliffe "misrepresented" and "embellished" his role in the case, even suggesting that he was not involved with it at all. The article claimed:
"ABC News could find no public court records that connect Ratcliffe to either of the two trials for the case. Former officials directly involved in the decade-long Holy Land Foundation investigation could not recall Ratcliffe having any role, and four former defense attorneys who served on the cases told ABC News on Monday they had no recollection of Ratcliffe being involved with any of the proceedings that resulted in the convictions of their clients."
Garrett, who is listed on the federal court docket for the Holy Land Foundation case as one of the prosecutors of record representing the United States, told The Federalist that ABC News never contacted him for comment prior to publishing its article.

Comment: See also: Trump boots Dan Coats, appoints Rep Jim Ratcliffe new US Director of National Intelligence


Attention

Hold on a sec! Have the Dems moved to the right of GOP on forever wars?

Droneway
© Reuters/Handout/US Marine Corps/Juan Anaya
There's not much Donald Trump can do right in the eyes of most Democrats, but when he wants to pump more money into the military, even some of his most prominent detractors show up to lend a hand.

Indeed, few things earn more bipartisan support in the US than bloated defense budgets and foreign military adventures, but it seems in recent years Democrats are managing to outdo their Republican rivals on hawkishness.

The Democrat-controlled House has voted 284-149 to pass a budget resolution giving the Pentagon a record $738 billion. Even some of Trump's fiercest critics like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib voted 'yes.'

While there once was an anti-war wing of the Democratic Party, that is "no longer" the case, Joe Lombardo from the United National Antiwar Coalition told RT.


Comment: See also:


Eye 1

New evidence emerges about Ukraine's secret Nazi prisons

Ukrain nazis Azov
Mariupol, occupied Donbass - Earlier, there were reports of Ukrainian Nazi battalions such as "Azov" and the "Right Sector" running Gestapo-style prisons. But even more convincing new evidence has emerged that the secret prison in the Mariupol airport, occupied Donbass, exists.

RIA Novosti conducted a journalistic investigation. Ex-inmates and employees of the prison, which is unofficially called the Library, said that it belongs to the Azov Battalion and is sponsored by the SBU.

Star of David

Propaganda alert! Israel said to hit Iranian sites in Iraq, expanding strikes on missile shipments

Israel air force f35
© Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse
Israeli F-35 jet of the type that supposedly carried out the "air strike".
Israel has expanded its operations against Iranian targets to Iraq, where Air Force jets have struck twice in ten days, a report said Tuesday morning.

Israel commonly conducts strikes in Syrian territory, targeting Iranian missile shipments meant for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah to use against the Jewish state, but strikes in Iraq by Israel have not been reported since the 1981 bombing of a nuclear reactor.

Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic-language newspaper published in London, cited Western diplomatic sources as saying an Israeli F-35 plane was behind a July 19 strike on a rocket depot in a Shiite militia base north of Baghdad.

The IDF has not commented on the report.

Comment: Moon of Alabama has commented on the "strikes" and Israel's strategy for punting IDF propaganda:
Israeli newspaper repeat a report which claims that Israeli planes hit Iranian targets in Iraq. From the last one:
The IAF used its F-35i stealth fighter jets to hit two Iraqi bases that were used by Iranian forces and proxies and for storing ballistic missiles, the London-based Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Tuesday.
Asharq Al-Awsat is owned by Faisal bin Salman, a member of the Saudi ruling clan. It is - like other Arab papers - often used to launder Israeli disinformation and propaganda that is then repeated in the Israeli press.

The original Asharq Al-Aswat report reads:
Israel has expanded the scope of its Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria, western diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat amid reports that Tel Aviv carried out an airstrike earlier this month against an Iranian rockets depot northeast of Baghdad.

The July 19 attack was carried out by an Israeli F-35 fighter jet, they added.

On Sunday, the Ashraf base in Iraq, a former base used by the Iranian opposition People's Mujahedin of Iran, was targeted by an air raid, said sources.

The base lies 80 kilometers from the border with Iran and 40 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.

The sources revealed that the strikes targeted Iranian "advisors" and a ballistic missile shipment that had recently arrived from Iran to Iraq.

Last week, Syria's Tal al-Hara was struck by Israeli jets.

The diplomatic sources said the attack targeted Iran's attempt to seize control of the strategic hill, located in Daraa countryside in southern Syria
The above F-35 promotion then goes on to laud the Israeli Arrows-3 air defense missile the U.S. paid for.

Of the three incidents Asharq Al-Awsat mentions only one, in Syria, really happened.

On July 19 a fire broke out at a camp of the 16th Brigade of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). It set off some ammunition. The 16th is a light infantry brigade. It does not have ballistic missiles. While the incident was first reported as a missile attack, an investigation later said (Arabic) that the fire was caused by a defect of some equipment (machine translation)
The Central Commission of Inquiry sent by the People's Assembly on Sunday announced the results of the investigation into the bombing of the Martyrs' Camp of the Commission, which is located near the city of Ameri.

The report of the specialized committee confirmed that the investigations conducted have proved that the explosion was not a military target as a result of a plane or a guided missile, but was a fire of solid fuel due to an internal defect.
No one was killed in the incident.

The alleged attack on Sunday never happened:


It is not the Saudis that created this fake news but the "western diplomatic sources", aka the Israeli ambassador in London, who briefed the Asharq Al-Awsat writer.

The third incident, in Syria, did happen:
Syria's state media said on Wednesday an Israeli missile attack had targeted the country's southern province of Daraa, but did not report any casualties.

State news agency SANA and state TV added that the "Israeli aggression" struck Tal al-Hara hill that is home to Syrian army posts adding that it only caused material damage.
...
The Tal al-Hara hill, a strategic area overlooking the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, was for many years a major Russian military radar outpost until rebels took it over in 2014 before it was again recaptured by the Syrian army last year.
Israel did not hit any Iranian targets or anything else in Iraq. The Asharq Al-Awsat story is pure propaganda.

If the Israeli air force were stupid enough to bomb targets in Iraq, it would likely see consequences that it would not like:





Jet4

Beseiged Libyan GNA says military operations will not stop until LNA withdraws to pre-war positions

Tripoli airport bombed Libya
© Associated Press / Mohammed Ben Khalifa
Black smoke billows over the skyline as a fire at the oil depot for the airport rages out of control after being struck in the crossfire of warring militias battling for control of the airfield, in Tripoli,
The forces of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) will not stop military operations until troops of their rival Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, are withdrawn to their pre-war positions, GNA head Fayez Sarraj said.

Sputnik: The hostilities on the outskirts of Tripoli have been going on for four months. Have any of the powerful countries approached you with an initiative to mediate to resolve the crisis? Are there any preconditions for ending this war?

Fayez al-Sarraj: Yes, the war has been going on for four months already, since 4 April, from an attempted coup, an attempt to seize power.

The aggressor [the forces of LNA General Commander Khalifa Haftar], having acquired a huge amount of weapons over the years, imagined that the war would be an easy stroll, that the militants would enter Tripoli within 24 hours.

Comment: Russia will be an honest broker in Libya, as it has been in other situations. It has interests to protect in Libya's oil industry, but will not do so at the expense of Libya's citizens, unlike other players in the Great Game.


Arrow Down

BBC's anti-Corbyn hatchet job fails to land blow - Panorama exposé full of innuendo and ommissions

antisemitism protester britain UK labour party
© Reuters
Israel supporters protest alleged anti-Semitism outside Labour Party headquarters.
The BBC heavily trailed details from Wednesday night's Panorama program, "Is Labour Anti-Semitic?"

The papers were full of headlines about it over the weekend, and it was supposed to prove just how anti-Semitic Labour has become under left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.

In truth, all the program proved was just how dishonest the British establishment and the Israel lobby have been in manufacturing this "Labour anti-Semitism crisis" for the past four years.

Mike Creighton, Labour's former director of complaints, admitted this candidly in the film itself.

Attention

Spanish paper reveals ties between 2017 Spanish terror attack ring-leader and Spanish secret services

es-satty
On 15 July 2019, under the signature of Carlos Enrique Bayo, the Spanish republican daily Público published the beginning of a four-part enquiry into the relations between the ring-leader of the 2017 attacks in Catalonia and the Spanish secret services [1].

In Spain, espionage and counter-espionage are handled by a single institution, the CNI (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia - National Intelligence Centre). Although, administratively speaking, it is subordinate to the Ministry of Defence, its director enjoys the formal rank of Minister.

The documents published by Público attest that, contrary to the official version, the Imam of Ripoll, the Moroccan Abdelbaki Es-Satty
  • had been radicalised for a long time ;
  • that he had been recruited as an informer by the Intelligence services ;
  • that the Intelligence services had falsified his legal case files in order to avoid him being expelled after he was found guilty of drug-trafficking ;
  • that a « dead letter box » had been prepared for him so that he could communicate with his handling officer ;
  • and that the telephones of his accomplices were tapped.
Above all, they attest that :
  • the CNI followed the terrorists step by step ;
  • knew the locations of the targets for the attack ;
  • and were continuing their surveillance at least four days before the crimes were committed.
Why did the CNI not prevent the attacks? Why did it hide what it knew? Why, in 2008 (that is to say before the recruitment of Abdelbaki Es-Satty as an informer), did it hide certain elements from the Guardia Civil in order to protect the enquiry into the Madrid attack of 11 March 2004 (known as « 11-M »)?

Comment: This response to Público's reporting is rich: "An Iranian Lie Unfolds in Spanish Media", by Ben Cohen of JNS.org. Can't have NATO-linked intelligence - or potentially, Mossad, hashem yishmor! - being exposed for false-flag terror, now can we, Ben?

For coverage from the time of the attack, see: