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Fast thoughts on Idlib and other business

SyrianFlagIdlib
© RT
As I wrote in Russia As A Cat, Russia will continue to "eat chicken" at her own pace ignoring angry monologues from the "democratic world" and will continue extermination of unicorns and humanitarian terrorists in Idlib apace. The process continued today with new airstrikes against those "rebels". It is symptomatic, then, that Russia's Ambassador to Syria gave this statement to TASS. I give this news piece in full and want to remind you that Russia's high level military and diplomat figures DO NOT make statements off the wall. Those statements are always sanctioned from the above:
DAMASCUS, September 7. TASS. Russia is helping Syria restore and modernize its air defense system, Russia's Ambassador to that country, Alexander Kinshchak, told TASS on Friday. "We are helping our Syrian partners to restore, modernize and boost the efficiency of the integrated air defense system," he said when asked how well Syria is protected against possible airstrikes by Western nations. "Much is yet to be done because everything was in utter devastation, but certain results can already be seen," he said. In late April, chief of the main operations directorate of the Russian General Staff, Sergei Rudskoi, said that Syria would soon receive new air defense systems and promised that Russian specialists would help the Syrian military to master them. He refrained from details of the systems, saying only that the S-125, Osaand Kvadrat systems used by the Syrian army had been restored and modernized with Russia's assistance. In late August, the Russian Defense Ministry warned about a possible provocation plotted in the Syrian Idlib governorate by militants under supervision of British special services. Thus, according to the ministry, militants were planning to simulate the use of chemical weapons against civilians by Syrian government troops to furnish the United States, the United Kingdom and France with a pretext to deliver an airstrike on Syrian government and economic facilities.

Attention

How Turkey obstructs Russia and Assad in Idlib

Map Idlib
© mediadc.brightspotcdn
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can't stop an imminent Russian-Syrian-Iranian axis offensive against Idlib province, but he is complicating that endeavor in a number of ways.

First off, Erdogan is reinforcing Turkish control over arterial supply routes that connect Idlib with Turkey. As first reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Thursday, Turkish military convoys are moving armored vehicles, including tanks, toward Turkish observation posts (small military bases) in Idlib. This reinforcement is designed to ensure that Turkish forces can defeat any attacks by Bashar Assad's military or militias. The Turkish military and Assad despise each other, so the potential for a conflagration is significant.

But Erdogan also wants to show Russian President Vladimir Putin his profound dissatisfaction at the axis offensive. While Erdogan should have seen this development coming, he hopes that putting tanks in the axis path will deter it from acting with extreme aggression. Note that Turkey is focused on ground operations here because Idlib and western Turkey are in comfortable range of Russia's S-400 air defense system at Latakia. While Turkey could destroy that system and overwhelm Russian aircraft in Syria, it won't go that far and spark a major conflict with Putin.

As my annotated Google map below shows (relying on SyriaLiveMapUA and my own research), Turkey (green lines) is reinforcing the northern approaches into Idlib (green arrows and northern green square) so as to prevent the axis from dominating Turkish freedom of movement. Turkey already controls northern Syria's border area (green circles).

Comment: The map and Turkish positions may be the only reality-based information in this Washington Examiner article. SOHR is not a reliable source, nor are the MSM determinations of: Turkey's actions and motivations, 'axis bloodletting', slaughter of civilians, maximizing the death toll, Assad's (NON) use of chemical weapons and deserving 'devastating US-allied retaliation'. It reveals the entrenched propaganda messages propagated to sway legislators and the public to accept and demand Western involvement and military action - a cover for entrenching the US in the ME.

See also:


Yoda

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard Accuses Trump, Pence of Shielding Al-Qaeda in Idlib

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard
© Agence France-Presse/Nicholas Kamm/File
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard
Speaking on the House floor on September 13, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard accused the Trump administration of protecting al-Qaeda terrorists in Idlib. According to the congresswoman, this amounts to the betrayal of the American people and victims of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks in the US.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02) called out President Donald Trump and Vice President Pence for allegedly protecting al-Qaeda* in Idlib, Syria, while speaking in the House on September 13.

"Two days ago, President Trump and Vice President Pence delivered solemn speeches about the attacks on 9/11, talking about how much they care about the victims of al-Qaeda's attack on our country. But, they are now standing up to protect the 20,000 to 40,000 al-Qaeda and other jihadist forces in Syria, and threatening Russia, Syria, and Iran, with military force if they dare attack these terrorists," the congresswoman stressed.

Comment: A Syrian 'gas attacks' timeline - Notice the pattern?


Vader

Tucker Carlson rightly wonders at Washington's Idlib logic: US to bomb Syria to protect Al-Qaeda?

Al qaeda Syria
© Khalil Ashawi / Reuters
Washington's threats to take military action to deter a Syrian assault on Al-Qaeda-held Idlib province has prompted Fox News host Tucker Carlson to ask the obvious question: Why would the US bomb a country to protect terrorists?

Carlson marveled at how 17 years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the US was now using its military might to shield - rather than eradicate - Al-Qaeda.

"More than 10,000 rebels in that province are believed to be aligned with Al-Qaeda. So that would mean that 17 years after 9/11, America could soon find itself bombing a country to protect Al-Qaeda sympathizers. Why would we do that?" Carlson asked.

Comment: The Empire's hypocrisy is laid bare. Tucker called it when he mentioned that Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran in their war, but the US stood by because they approved of the goal to destroy Iran.


Vader

Proof that the US protects Al Qaeda in Syria

US troops in Syria
© Aboud Hamam / Reuters
There's plenty of proof that the U.S. Government protects Al Qaeda in Syria. Right now, America is protecting Al Qaeda's main center throughout the world, which is the province of Idlib in Syria. This protection is part of a bigger picture, no merely isolated phenomenon.

For example: the key point of difference between the Obama Administration in America and the Putin Administration in Russia, regarding the establishment of a cease-fire in the Syrian war, was that Obama refused to allow Al Qaeda in Syria to be bombed during the proposed ceasefire, but Putin insisted that both Al Qaeda in Syria and ISIS in Syria must continue to be bombed during the ceasefire. Obama was protecting Al Qaeda in Syria, but Putin insisted upon bombing Al Qaeda and not only ISIS during any ceasefire there. (See the proof at that link, and you will also understand why Obama was protecting Al Qaeda in Syria.)

Right now, the U.S. Government and some of its allies are threatening to go to war against Russia if Russia will bomb the world's highest concentration of Al Qaeda terrorists. Those terrorists are located in the only province of Syria that has always preferred Al Qaeda and ISIS to the Government of Syria's secular President, Bashar al-Assad. That's Idlib province, which now is Al Qaeda central, like Afghanistan used to be before 9/11 (and for which the U.S. bombed Afghanistan right after 9/11).

Comment: Turkish Defense Minister Akar calls for halt of military operations in Idlib


Yoda

'Wash your mouth out before insulting legitimate government': Italy's Salvini hits out at top EU official over 'little Mussolinis' remark

European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici (L) and Italian Deputy PM Matteo Salvini (R)
© Reuters
European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici (L) and Italian Deputy PM Matteo Salvini (R)
Italian Deputy PM Matteo Salvini fired back at top EU economic official Pierre Moscovici, telling him to "wash his mouth out" following Moscovici's remark on the spread of "little Mussolinis" in Europe.

Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, voiced his fear over the rise of right-wing forces in some countries, comparing the situation to the WWII era.

"Fortunately there is no sound of jackboots, there is no Hitler, (but maybe there are) small Mussolinis. That remains to be seen," he told reporters in Paris on Thursday.

Comment: See also:


Smiley

MSM hits peak lunacy: Hurricane Florence is Donald Trump's fault

hurricane florence trump
© CBSN
The 'perpetrator' and the 'crime scene', at least according the the Washington Post.
Mother Nature truly doesn't give a whit about politics - but try telling that to the hysterical mainstream leftist media!

The Washington Post ran a piece about Hurricane Florence (sort of) on Tuesday, Sept 11, with this headline: "Another hurricane is about to bash our coast. Trump is complicit." And apparently the opinion writers of the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, believe that this is either true, or that it is good political fodder as the midterm elections approach. It is not enough to talk about the presence of this piece, especially when one can read it for themselves:

Chess

Analysts weigh in on Skripal poisoning accusations: 'UK cornered itself claiming Petrov & Boshirov were perpetrators'

skripal suspects interview

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov
Whatever revelations may pop up, the UK will stick to its vague version of the Salisbury poisoning incident, analysts said on the heels of an exclusive RT interview with Britain's Skripal case suspects.

The interview with Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, named as suspects in the Salisbury poisoning, appeared on RT on Thursday. Speaking to RT editor-in-chief, Maragarita Simonyan both said they had been wrongly accused by the UK of attempted murder of the ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Although they claimed they went there to see the sights, the British were quick to denounce the interview as a blow to the "public's intelligence." RT has been told that no matter what, the UK will not change its view on the matter.

Comment: The situation is going from bad to worse for the Brits in their attempt to whip up the Cold War hysteria.


Cross

Russian Orthodox Church suspends work with Constantinople for recognizing independence of breakaway Ukrainian Church

Patriarch Kirill
© Sergey Pyatakov / Sputnik
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia marks the 100th anniversary of the royal family's martyrdom
The Russian Orthodox Church is ending its participation in any structures chaired by the Constantinople Patriarchate, the Holy Synod said, as Constantinople decided to recognize the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

"We have decided to suspend joint performance of church services with the hierarchs of the Constantinople Patriarchate, to suspend our membership in all structures, which are headed or co-chaired by the representatives of Constantinople," Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's External Relations Department, said following an extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Comment: Interestingly Russian Orthodox Partriarch Kirill recently commented that the Russian Orthodox church is free from all political influence, can the same be said for the church in Ukraine?
"I don't know if other heads of Orthodox churches in the world enjoy the same level of freedom," he added. "Russian Church is completely free from any political influence in the country, it is interacting with the authorities on equal terms and this is for the first time in history."
See also:


Monkey Wrench

More US intervention in Syria would be crazy and stupid despite NYT obscene war propaganda

NYT op-ed Syria intervention

We’re being given all these different stories about why a regime change intervention in Iraq’s next-door neighbor Syria is needed, and the only thing those stories seem to have in common is that they all require a large amount of expensive weaponry being discharged upon the human beings who back the Syrian government.
As tensions continue to mount around the Al-Qaeda-held province of Idlib in Syria, the New York Times has published an op-ed by virulent neoconservative war whore Bret Stephens explaining that the US should intervene militarily in order to thwart the geopolitical agendas of Iran. He argues that any movement to recapture Idlib should be met with a full-scale assault on the Syrian government, crippling its air force and attacking Bashar al-Assad's presidential palaces. Stephens says this must be done to prevent Tehran from "consolidating a Shiite crescent stretching from Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon."