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Is the US ditching Ankara or expanding dominance as it seeks a more strategic military presence in Greece?


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 10:00 UTC
USJoint Staff meet
© US Joint Staff/Global Look Press
Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford meets with Greek Navy Adm. Evangelos Apostolakis on 4 September, 2018.
The US is looking to boost its military presence in Greece, citing the viable "geographical position" of the country. However, this may actually indicate preparations for a potential breakup with major ally Turkey.

The prospects for strengthening military cooperation between Washington and Athens have come under the spotlight following the recent visit of the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, to Greece.
"If you look at geography, and you look at current operations in Libya, and you look at current operations in Syria, you look at potential other operations in the eastern Mediterranean, the geography of Greece and the opportunities here are pretty significant," Dunford said last week.
The top military official insisted, however, that an increased use of bases in Greece is not tied to strained relations between the US and Turkey, and that Washington is looking forward to continuing its use of Turkish Incirlik Air Base - one of the main hubs for US military activities in the Middle East.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal suggests, however, that the shift towards Greece might have "geopolitical" factors behind it, apart from purely "geographical," as General Dunford put it. The Pentagon is in talks with Athens about the expansion of US military operations on Greek soil in a "potential move toward the eastern Mediterranean amid growing tensions with Turkey," unnamed US sources told the newspaper.

Comment: Turkey rides the fence between the Russia and the US, never fully committing to one side or the other. In this sense it is useful but not reliable. If we look back far enough, we may find Greece has been a target on the US' back burner for a long time. Screwed over by the IMF and left with a decades-long debilitating economic crisis, its circumstances may play right into US hands. See also:

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Dig

Pompeo insists Saudi coalition exercises caution in Yemen but facts show that's a lie


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 18:10 UTC
Yemeni graveyard
© Naif Rahma/Reuters
Yemenis grieve beside the grave of a child killed in last month's coalition airstrike on a school bus.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told Congress that the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are doing enough to protect civilians in their campaign in Yemen. The facts however, tell a different story.

Pompeo said in a certification statement Wednesday that ending the three-year conflict is a national security priority for President Donald Trump, and that the US will "continue to work closely with the Saudi-led coalition," to end the war.

The certification is a requirement of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill that sets out the US military's vast budget and policies for the coming year. President Trump signed the 2019 NDAA into law in August.

Comment: Pompeo comes from the CIA climate where all actions are acceptable and accountability has no meaning.

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Arrow Up

Putin: North Korea needs more encouragement


RFE/RL
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 13:24 UTC
Kim Putin
© Daily Express
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that North Korea should be given security guarantees in exchange for steps toward denuclearization, and suggested that Washington is not reciprocating adequately in its dealings with Pyongyang.

Speaking at an economic forum in the Russian port city of Vladivostok on September 12, Putin said that North Korea had taken positive steps and was now waiting for a response. "If North Korea does something towards denuclearization, it expects reciprocal steps and not endless demands for full disarmament," Putin said.

Putin, who has met this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon, said that "international" guarantees would be appropriate in addition to what Washington can offer.

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearization at their June 12 summit in Singapore, after which the U.S. president said that he had "largely solved" the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear program and that the North was no longer a nuclear threat.

But negotiations have stalled since and Washington has expressed disappointment with Pyongyang's lack of progress toward denuclearization, though Trump praised North Korea for not displaying its intercontinental ballistic missiles at a military parade it staged on September 9.

Putin, who has repeatedly accused Trump's domestic opponents and others in the U.S. political establishment of seeking to undermine the president, praised Trump for meeting with Kim. "I would not be skeptical or ironic if I say I truly believe that President Trump's approach is innovative. He has demonstrated political courage and boldness," he said.

Comment: Trump is receiving more support from Putin than he is from his own administration or the US political arena.

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Briefcase

Three charges John Bolton should face at the ICC

Juan Cole
Informed Comment
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 18:52 UTC
John Bolton
© Associated Press / Alonzo Adams
John Bolton
National Security Adviser John Bolton appears to be spiraling down into the same miasma of madness that possesses other members of the Trump administration - perhaps caused by a microbe carried in Trump's sniffle. This week he threatened justices of the International Criminal Court in the Hague with physical abduction were they to dare indict an American for war crimes committed in Afghanistan.

The International Criminal Court was established by the Rome Statute, which went into effect in 2002 has been ratified by 123 nations of the world. Most of Europe and all of Latin America and half of African states have signed. Virtually the only deadbeats are countries whose officials are afraid of being indicted by the court for serious human rights crimes, such as Syria, China, India, Sudan, Israel, Russia and . . . the United States of America (actually the latter four signed but they pulled out when they realized that they had exposed their state officials to prosecution, what with the war crimes they are constantly committing).

Comment: It's a lovely picture, but were the ICC a legitimate organization, Bolton and his ilk would have been in the dock long ago.

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Mr. Potato

The 5 dumbest moments of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing

Siraj Hashmi
Washington Examiner
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 18:01 UTC
Brett Kavanaugh nominee
© Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to confirm Appellate Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh went beyond partisan charades. It was a downright circus.

So, here are the dumbest things that happened in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing:

Comment: Kavanaugh was nominated for the Supreme Court because he aligns with Trump's policies, as any sitting president would do. Unfortunately for Judge Kavanugh, there is no candidate Trump could choose that would be acceptable to the 'woke' Dems.

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Black Cat

FBI-DOJ-MSM collusion much deeper than previously known - 'leaking like mad'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 17:03 UTC
strzok hearing

Peter Strzok indulges in a little psychopathic 'duper's delight' at his Senate hearing
The FBI's coordination with the mainstream media surrounding the 2016 US election - a "media leak strategy" which was first first revealed Tuesday - goes far deeper than first reported, according to Fox News, which obtained "new communications between the former lovers."

A December 15, 2016 email appears to discuss a "political" leaking operation, in which others were "leaking like mad" amid the Trump-Russia probe.
"Oh, remind me to tell you tomorrow about the times doing a story about the rnc hacks," Page texted Strzok.

"And more than they already did? I told you Quinn told me they pulling out all the stops on some story..." Strzok replied.

A source told Fox News "Quinn" could be referring to Richard Quinn, who served as the chief of the Media and Investigative Publicity Section in the Office of Public Affairs. Quinn could not be reached for comment.

Strzok again replied: "Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried, and political, they're kicking into overdrive."

In one passage, Strzok apparently misreads a reference to "rnc" as "mc," and then, realizing his error, blames "old man eyes."

It is unclear at this point to whom Strzok was referring when he used the term "sisters." -Fox News

Comment: The compliant mainstream media has ever been the Deep State's faithful servant.

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Bad Guys

Zakharova: US aims to 'artificially prolong' bloodshed in Syria by saving terrorists


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 19:23 UTC
The government-controlled area of Aleppo
© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters
The government-controlled area of Aleppo, Syria
Washington is seeking to obstruct moves towards peace to "artificially prolong" the conflict in Syria by saving Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists from imminent defeat, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said.

The US is obviously struggling to justify its military presence on Syrian territory as it uses officials and biased media to prepare the world for a new round of aggression against the Arab republic, Zakharova told reporters at her news conference on Thursday. The purpose of such rhetoric is simple - to change the "vector" of events in the country, which turned toward a peaceful course just last year.

"We see in Washington's actions an attempt to artificially prolong an armed standoff and fratricidal bloodshed in Syria by saving the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists from final defeat," the diplomat stated.

Comment: See also: Russian naval forces conclude 'drills' in Mediterranean - will remain to oversee Idlib liberation

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Heart - Black

France admits enabling death by torture during Algerian War of Independence


RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 17:19 UTC
macron
© Thomas SAMSON / AFP
In a watershed decision, the French government has acknowledged it enabled a system which resulted in the torture of people during the war of independence in its former colony of Algeria six decades ago.

The war of 1954-62 claimed some 1.5 million Algerian lives as French troops cracked down on the uprising as the colony sought independence after 130 years under foreign rule. It also left a mark on the French, as the war effort required a massive conscription surge, with hundreds of thousands young French men drafted and sent to fight in Africa.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that during the war Paris created a system that led to the abduction and death under torture of Maurice Audin, a pro-independence communist activist and mathematician.
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Bullseye

Threats to freedom: Facebook's Atlantic Council censors are more interested in tanks than thinking

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:44 UTC
zuckerberg
© Jaap Arriens / Global Look Press
Like all foreign policy and military think tanks, the Atlantic Council exists to manufacture consent for the goals of its paymasters. It hit the jackpot when the world's largest social media network put it in charge of censorship.

While the ubiquitous presence of Atlantic Council lobbyists across the information space already imperilled fair discourse, Facebook's May move empowered it to endanger freedom of expression. And founder Mark Zuckerberg's reference to an information "arms race" in a Washington Post op-ed last weekend exposes the grim reality behind the move.

That said, the spin has been impressive. Headlines such as "US think tank's tiny lab helps Facebook battle fake social media (Reuters)" and "Facebook partners with Atlantic Council to improve election security (The Hill)".
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Sherlock

Backing up Salisbury suspects Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov's alibi

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Thu, 13 Sep 2018 16:40 UTC
skripal suspects
© MET Police
Their best sides -"Ruslan Boshirov" and "Alexander Petrov" make sure to be caught on CCTV at Salisbury Station on March 3, 2018 in an image handed out by the Metropolitan Police in London, Britain September 5, 2018
Like many, my first thought at the interview of Boshirov and Petrov - which apparently are indeed their names - is that they were very unconvincing. The interview itself seemed to be set up around a cramped table with a poor camera and lighting, and the interviewer seemed pretty hopeless at asking probing questions that would shed any real light.

I had in fact decided that their story was highly improbable, until I started seeing the storm of twitter posting, much of it from mainstream media journalists, which stated that individual things were impossible which were, in fact, not impossible at all.

The first and most obvious regards the weather on 3 and 4 March. It is in fact absolutely true that, if the two had gone down to Salisbury on 3 March with the intention of going to Stonehenge, they would have been unable to get there because of the snow. It is therefore perfectly possible that they went back the next day to try again; and public transport out of Salisbury was still severely disrupted, and many roads closed, on 4 March. Proof of this is not at all difficult to find.

Comment: Despite all the evidence pointing to the fact that these two Russian tourists are exactly who they say they are, Britain is still insisting on their accusations. It appears the UK government is more interested in riling up the Russophobes than getting to the truth.

RT reports:
The UK Foreign Office doubled down on their claim that Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov are officers in Russian military intelligence, after the pair professed their innocence during an interview with RT.

The pair had said they had been wrongly accused by the UK of attempted murder of ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury in March, stating they were in the city for tourism.

Following the interview's broadcast, UK government spokesperson told RT:
"The Police and Crown Prosecution Service have identified these men as the prime suspects in relation to the attack in Salisbury.

"The Government is clear these men are officers of the Russian military intelligence service - the GRU - who used a devastatingly toxic, illegal chemical weapon on the streets of our country.

"We have repeatedly asked Russia to account for what happened in Salisbury in March. Today - just as we have seen throughout - they have responded with obfuscation and lies."
Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesperson labelled the interview "an insult to the public's intelligence" and "deeply offensive."

The Foreign Office's claim was backed up by John Glen MP, the lawmaker whose constituency includes Salisbury.


Despite the UK's claims, many questions remain over the pair's guilt.

Analysts told RT that the men either wanted to be noticed on purpose or were just two ridiculously clumsy "agents," as the surveillance cameras captured a large proportion of their movements around Salisbury.

Speaking to RT, Charles Shoebridge, a former British military officer, stressed that it's very strange for well-trained Russian intelligence specialists to leave such a "reckless and clear trail of evidence" that would lead the investigation directly to Russia.

Annie Machon, a former MI5 intelligence officer, said she doubts Moscow's alleged motive, noting that pieces of evidence presented to the public will never be "tried forensically in court," adding that there are some "big holes" in the chain of evidence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denies the two men are military intelligence officers in the GRU, insisting they are civilians and there is nothing criminal about them.

Following the British allegations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated: "Neither Russia's top leadership nor those with lower ranks, and [Russian] officials, have had anything to do with the events in Salisbury."


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