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'Fixing' the terrorist problem they created: US sets up $110 million drone base in Nigeria

drone base nigeria
© Associated Press
The US base for drones against extremism in the Sahel. Agadez, Niger
The United States Air Force is building a multi-million dollar base for armed drones in Niger.

This base will serve as a new front in America's battle against the growing extremist threat in Africa's vast Sahel region, including the Boko Haram insurgency, the Associated Press reports.

The Niger Air Base 201 is expected to be functional early next year.

The base which lies a few miles outside Agadez, Niger, was built at the request of the Nigerien government.

AP writes that the sophisticated base will eventually house fighter jets and MQ-9 drones transferred from the capital Niamey.

Comment: The U.S. needs to be there because terrorism. The terrorism is there because U.S. The U.S. needs to be there because terrorism. The terrorism...


MIB

Witness says House Democrat IT tech Imran Awan was Pakistani spy

wasserman shultz awan
© Facebook / Reuters
Imran Awan (L), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (R)
Daily Caller reporter Luke Rosiak is investigating the case of the family of Pakistani IT techs working for the Democrat House members. One of those techs was Imran Awan, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's IT tech. He also worked on almost all Democrat House member computers. One key witness says Imran was a spy who gave their classified data to Pakistani intelligence.

Imran and his family had access to the computers of most of the Democrat House members and had a lust for money by all accounts. He accessed unauthorized classified data, transferring it from the congressional computers to an outside server.

Imran Awan saw to it that his unqualified family members also got high-paying no-show jobs in the congressional offices of Democrat members.

Imran was arrested last year for bank fraud as he attempted to flee the country. His wife already left and was in Pakistan.

Nothing much has been done and there appears to be no FBI probe, at least not one of any import.

Comment: More on the Awan scandal:


Eiffel Tower

Putin to micro-president Macron: FUKUS strike on Syria "seriously" violated international law

putin macron
The presidents of Russia and France discussed on Monday by phone the situation in Syria after an airstrike carried out by the United States, France and the United Kingdom in response to an alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma near Damascus, the Kremlin spokesman said.

Speaking with his French counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the US-led coalition's strikes against Syrian targets at the beginning of April were conducted in violation of international law and have complicated the situation in the Middle Eastern country.

He also noted the importance of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) conducting a thorough investigation on the ground in Syria.

French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, has expressed Paris' readiness for a dialogue with all parties involved in the Syrian political settlement, particularly Russia, according to the Elysee Palace.


Comment: That sounds pretty lame after acting like the U.S.'s slave in the FUKUS strikes...


France was one of the states from the US-led coalition, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, that carried out on April 14 a missile attack on a number of targets in Syria, including facilities in Barzeh and Jamraya, amid reports of an alleged chemical attack in Douma.

Pirates

US continues to cuddle ISIS - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Russia and Hizbullah continue to fight them

isis usa
OIR Spokesman Verified account @OIRSpox - 15:02 UTC - 24 Apr 2018

#Iraq's strike on a known Daesh HQ in Syria was planned/conducted by the Iraqi Security Forces, w/ support from @CJTFOIR. This strike shows Iraq's willingness to do what's necessary to secure its citizens as well as their important role in the Global @Coalition to #defeatDaesh
The above tweet by the spokesperson for the U.S. Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) against ISIS is extremely misleading if not false. The U.S. is trying to take some credit for a strike which was done without its consensus. The attack against ISIS was initiated by an anti-U.S. alliance as a warning against further U.S. shenanigans with ISIS.

The U.S. military in Syria has refrained from fighting ISIS for months. The map of the territory held by ISIS (grey) at the Syrian-Iraqi border in the U.S. controlled zone north of the Euphrates (yellow) has not changed since November 2017.

map isis
Livemap: Nov 30 2017, Apr 24 2018 - bigger, bigger

(The yellow corridor going south east towards Iraq on the map is misleading. The U.S. has no forces there and ISIS crossed it several times to attack Syrian forces (red) across the river.)

Comment: How soon before US and Israel and Saudi Arabia's use of terrorists as a proxy force becomes understood among the majority of Westerners as the THE prevailing problem in the Middle East? Maybe sooner than we think:




Clipboard

Gallup poll shows Killary set humiliating record MSM is ignoring

hillary clinton
Hillary Clinton wanted desperately to make history by being America's first female president. Instead, she just broke a different record for a very humiliating reason - and it provides a hint of exactly why she lost in the first place.

Forbes journalist Josh Jordan just pointed out an amazing fact that has been widely ignored by the mainstream media. Based on widely-respected Gallup polling, Hillary is the only candidate known to have dropped in likability after losing an election.

Comment: Killary is a textbook example of pathological persistence publicly demonstrated.


Attention

Leaked NSA cable confirms Israel assassinated Syrian government official in 2008

nsa suleiman

Screenshot of the leaked NSA cable implicating Israel in the assassination of the Syrian general Muhammad Suleiman on April 1, 2008.
In a scene that sounds as if it was taken out of a spy movie, Israeli naval commandos are said to have assassinated President Bashar Assad's top security aide as he hosted a dinner party at his beachfront villa in the coastal city of Tartus in 2008.

General Muhammad Suleiman was killed after multiple bullets hit him in the head and neck as he sat around a crowded dinner table in the summer of 2008, the Intercept reported on Wednesday.

Citing recently leaked NSA documents, the report said that Israel's elite naval commandos of Shayetet 13 stormed into Suleiman's seaside vacation from the beach and shot the general before quickly escaping back to the sea.

According to the report, the intelligence files confirm for the first time that Suleiman was the target of an Israeli military operation, ending years of speculation that it was in fact an internal dispute that had resulted in the general's assassination.

The document was provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who intermittently leaked thousands of classified documents from the American intelligence agency beginning in 2013.

Comment: See also:


Propaganda

BBC's Newsnight report into disinformation shows hallmarks of information warfare

BBC Newsnight
© Getty Images
"In the world of information warfare, the Russians are on the offensive," says a new BBC Newsnight report on disinformation, which bears all the hallmarks of a corporation waging an information war of its own.

In fact, the report comes mere days after a BBC presenter suggested live on air that the British state broadcaster was part of information warfare, and people should be tailoring their message accordingly.

Well, Newsnight was back in the props cupboard for this report, in order to sprinkle its now familiar Russian stereotypes throughout. The tropes on show here are Gabriel Gatehouse starting his report with a shot of vodka before later showing off his Russian skills, as well as two separate Russian matryoshka dolls, one with Putin's face on it. This is the level of discourse at which we're operating. "We've entered a world of confirmation bias," says Gatehouse unironically at one point, in what could be a description of his own work.

Eye 2

New book reveals how Killary melted down and went on expletive-laced rants against her staff during 2016 campaign

killary clinton

Maybe I had him killed, maybe Russia did. What difference does it make?
A new book claims Hillary Clinton melted down during debate preparation against Donald Trump in 2016.

Amy Chozick, who covered Clinton for The New York Times during the 2016 campaign, wrote in her book that Hillary went on expletive-laced rants against her staff.

The Guardian reports that Chozick wrote, "Aides understood that in order to keep it all together onstage, Hillary sometimes needed to unleash on them in private."

Russian Flag

Russian criticism of Western aggression and no intervention encourages more of the same

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Hegemons pay no heed to criticism of their policies, no matter how lawless.

Nor do their partners in high crimes, allied in pursuing a common agenda - regardless of how core international laws are violated.

Washington is a serial aggressor. US-dominated NATO is all about offense, not defense. Alliance enemies are invented. Real ones don't exist.

Yet endless wars rage, no end of them in sight, new nations on Washington's target list, eliminating sovereign independent Russia and China the final obstacles to unchallenged US dominance.

America's permanent war agenda heads perilously toward a potentially catastrophic one to end future conflicts, humanity at risk of being consumed by US hubris, arrogance, and rage to dominate.

Comment: We sympathize with Mr Lendman's frustration, and we admit it would be nice to see the US being slapped on the wrist a time or two when they unilaterally bomb other countries without any justification. However, Russia did not respond militarily to the attack because it was carefully measured to be minimal - a theatrical display that would not cause any real harm neither to Russia nor Syria. Why escalate based on so little when the war is virtually won? In fact, all things considered, F.UK.US. laregely damaged their own image, both for basing their actions on lies and for accomplishing nothing, leaving Russia and Syria looking much better.


X

UN envoy to Israel: 'Stop shooting at children, they must be protected'

Death of child
© Asraf Amra / Anadolu Agency
Funeral of a Palestinian child who was killed by Israeli forces during the 'Great March of Return' on 7 April 2018.
UN Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov clashed with a former Israeli army spokesman on Twitter after the UN official slammed Israel's violent response to protests in Gaza on Friday which left four Palestinians dead.

Mladenov angrily tweeted that Israel's actions on the Gaza border were "outrageous", particularly calling for children to be protected from the ensuing violence, a reference to 14-year-old Mohammad Ayoub, who was shot despite being some 150 metres away from the border.

Peter Lerner, who acted as spokesman for the Israeli military for 25 years, responded to Mladenov, labelling his comments "unhelpful" suggesting steps that the UN envoy should take instead to rectify the situation, including stopping "Palestinian incitement and organised riots at the border". He went on to say that the "the tweet from THE most senior UN official does nothing to prevent the next death".

Maldenov replied bluntly: "Here's another idea. Stop shooting at children."

Comment: See also: Israel's latest excuse for murdering child protesters in Gaza: They're not in school