Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Chess

The Syrian endgame begins: The battle for Aleppo and 'Plan C'

Prof. Tim Anderson
Global Research
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 03:03 UTC
aleppo syria map
The battle for Aleppo has forced the al Qaeda groups into their desperate last stand, as the Washington-driven proxy war on Syria moves into its final stages. The liberation of Aleppo will be the beginning of the end.

The online maps have been misleading. Even before the Russian air power intervention of September 2015 the Syrian Government controlled 85% of the country's populated areas. But reclaiming all of Aleppo is critical for Syrian control of the north and of supply lines to the shrinking ground of ISIS in the east.

Syria's major problem has been Turkey's semi-open support for jihadist armies crossing the 800km northern frontier, and the Turkey-Saudi-Qatari backed advances of ISIS from the east. In the past 10 months the Syrian Alliance has successfully pushed back on both fronts. Further, since last month, Turkey is in disarray, with its own problems.

Many follow the logic of dominant forces but, to understand the endgame in this war, the logic of resistance is no less important. Syria is proving that independent peoples who unite and resist can end up with a greater say in the outcome.
      Read More...
Chalkboard

Psychopathic think tank: RAND Corporation lays out scenarios for US war with China

Peter Symonds
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
rand
A new study by the RAND Corporation titled "War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable" is just the latest think tank paper devoted to assessing a US war against China. The study, commissioned by the US Army, provides further evidence that a war with China is being planned and prepared in the upper echelons of the American military-intelligence apparatus.

That the paper emerges from the RAND Corporation has a particular and sinister significance. Throughout the Cold War, RAND was the premier think tank for "thinking the unthinkable"—a phrase made notorious by RAND's chief strategist in the 1950s, Herman Kahn. Kahn devoted his macabre book On Thermonuclear War to elaborating a strategy for a "winnable" nuclear war against the Soviet Union.

According to the preface of the new study, released last week, "This research was sponsored by the Office of the Undersecretary of the Army and conducted within the RAND Arroyo Center's Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program. RAND Arroyo Center, part of the RAND Corporation, is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the United States Army."

The paper is a war-gaming exercise in the Kahn tradition: weighing the possible outcomes of a war between two nuclear powers with utter indifference to the catastrophic consequences for people in the United States, China and the rest of the world.

Comment: U.S.-based think tanks have been very busy planning for mass destruction these days. See also:

No joke: U.S. think tank suggests that Poland commit cyber-attacks on Moscow Metro, St. Petersburg power grid and RT offices

      Read More...
Cow Skull

Wiki-Leaked emails confirm anti-Sanders conspiracy among top DNC

Eric Draitser
Counterpunch
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Gil C / Shutterstock.com
The release by Wikileaks of a trove of emails from high-ranking Democratic Party officials has confirmed what many Americans - both progressive and conservative - have suspected throughout this election cycle: that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) actively conspired against Bernie Sanders in an attempt to ensure the nomination for Hillary Clinton.

But it wasn't simply party apparatchiks like the disgraced Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the recently resigned Chair of the DNC and close ally of Clinton, but also their trusted cronies in the corporate media who actively collaborated with DNC officials to ensure that nothing too critical of Hillary would make it into the Mighty Wurlitzer of contemptibly 'respectable' journalism. Indeed, what the Wikileaks revelations expose to the world is the fact that there's nothing democratic about the Democratic Party, or America's alleged democracy in general.

More specifically however, the question that really must be asked is: why Hillary Clinton? What is it about this woman that unites nearly the entirety of the political, financial, socio-cultural, and military establishment? Is it really just hatred of Donald Trump? Or is there something more insidious, something that makes Hillary the irresistible flame of belligerence and exceptionalism to which the corporate-imperialist moths are slavishly attracted?
      Read More...
Pharoah

No joke: U.S. think tank suggests that Poland commits cyber-attacks on Moscow Metro, St. Petersburg power grid and RT offices

Robert Bridge
RT
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 14:27 UTC
Taganskaya station
© Natalia Seliverstova / Sputnik
Passengers at the Taganskaya station of the Koltsevaya line of the Moscow Metro
The hysterical 'information war' just stopped being funny. The influential Atlantic Council has released a paper calling for Poland to 'reserve the right' to attack Russian infrastructure, including Moscow's public transport and RT's offices, via electronic warfare.

There are some ideas that are so outlandish, so outrageous, so off-the-reservation weird that the only way they should enter the public realm is by sheer accident, or in haphazard fashion through whistleblowers and WikiLeaks data dumps.

Regrettably, however, that was not the case with the Atlantic Council's latest paper, alarmingly entitled 'Arming for Deterrence: How Poland and NATO Should Counter a Resurgent Russia'. The recommendations put forward in this paper are the result of a deliberate decision, and that's what makes its contents all the more disturbing.

Heeding Tolstoy's advice, let's jump right into the action: Page 12, paragraph 7 and I quote: "Poland should announce that it reserves the right to deploy offensive cyber operations (and not necessarily in response just to cyber attacks). The authorities could also suggest potential targets, which could include the Moscow metro, the St. Petersburg power network, and Russian state-run media outlets such as RT."

Comment: The quite literally insane writings of those who are a part of the Atlantic Council are further discussed here:

The Atlantic Council, Western media, and the 'Big Lie' about Putin's Russia

      Read More...
Yoda

Putin warns against politicians using terrorism for political purposes


TASS
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 22:15 UTC
terrorist
© EPA/ALI ALI
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned politicians against exploiting terrorist and radical extremist groups out of political interests.

"And, of course, it is unacceptable and extremely dangerous to try to exploit terrorist and radical extremist groups out of political and geopolitical interests," Putin said in an interview to Azerbaijani State News Agency AZERTAC.

"In this endeavor, there can be no double standards; terrorists cannot be divided into 'good' and 'bad' ones," the Russian leader said.

"These are the very principles that our countries actively promote within the international community in an effort to broaden and strengthen as much as possible international cooperation at the political level as well as at the level of law enforcement bodies and special services," he added.

"We are most certainly concerned about two hotbeds of instability, in Afghanistan and in the Middle East, that are situated in the immediate vicinity of the Russian, Azerbaijani and Iranian borders," Putin noted. "They pose a grave threat of international terrorism and cross-border crime primarily due to the increased drug flow, arms trafficking and movement of fighters," he said adding that "the recent terrorist attacks perpetrated in various regions of the world prove yet again that terrorism can be addressed solely through a common effort guided by the norms and principles of international law and coordinated by the UN."
      Read More...
Eye 1

Surveillance State: 18 hours of surveillance footage from 2015 Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore released by FBI


RT
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 21:40 UTC
freddie gray surveillance
© Matt Novak / YouTube
The FBI has released spy footage taken during the Baltimore 2015 protests honoring Freddie Gray, who died in police custody. Footage includes traditional and infrared modes, the latter to allow for nighttime recording.

The 18 hours of footage, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union, pertains to marches, rallies, and smaller congregations of people protesting or mourning the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore from April 29 through May 3, 2015.

While the FBI previously admitted to surveilling protests in Baltimore — as well as in Ferguson, Missouri, amid protests over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown — using aircraft registered to front companies to avoid FBI ownership, the FOIA release represents the first public offering of such footage. The FBI footage came from at least 10 flights, according to FBI records.

"The aircraft were specifically used to assist in providing high-altitude observation of potential criminal activity to enable rapid response by police officers on the ground," said FBI spokeswoman Amy Thoreson in May 2015. "The FBI aircraft were not there to monitor lawfully protected First Amendment activity."
      Read More...
Cell Phone

Killary campaigners using Pokemon Go to lure voters

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 16:53 UTC
hillary pokemon
Some could have been excused for dismissing initial qualms surrounding the GPS-based augmented reality game, Pokemon Go. The game has swept the world, but its development is surrounded by disturbing connections between its developer Niantic, its former parent company Google, and the US State Department.

But while many before could only speculate as to the reason the US State Department may have been interested in developing such a game, it appears now there is at least a partial answer.

AFP would report in their article, "Pokemon Go a campaign weapon for presidential candidates," that:
The global phenomenon Pokemon Go has made its way onto the US presidential campaign trail with the staff of both major candidates appealing to users of the smartphone game to catch voters.
      Read More...
Eye 1

Over 1,000 US spies descend on Rio Olympics in massive security operation

Robert Windrem and William Arkin
NBC News
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 17:06 UTC
soldiers in rio olympics
© Jewel Samad/ AFP - Getty Images
Brazilian soldiers patrol around the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
U.S. intelligence has assigned more than 1,000 spies to Olympic security as part of a highly classified effort to protect the Rio 2016 Summer Games and American athletes and staff, NBC News has learned.

Hundreds of analysts, law enforcement and special operations personnel are already on the ground in Rio de Janeiro, according to an exclusive NBC News review of a highly classified report on U.S. intelligence efforts.

In addition, more than a dozen highly trained Navy and Marine Corps commandos from the U.S. Special Operations Command are in Brazil, working with the Brazilian Federal Police and the Brazilian Navy, according to senior military officials.

The U.S. military, as expected, has placed larger military units on call should a rescue or counterterrorism operation be needed, the officials said.
      Read More...
Clipboard

Large numbers of EU voters want to punish Britain for Brexit vote


RT
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 17:31 UTC
UK EU flags
© Toby Melville / Reuters
Large numbers of voters in France, Germany, Spain and Italy say the UK should be offered a tough deal when leaving the EU, according to a survey that suggests Europeans want to punish Britain for Brexit.

France showed the most contempt for the Brexit vote, with 39 percent of people saying Brussels should offer Brits unfavorable departure terms. Just 19 percent of French voters said the UK should be given favorable Brexit terms.

This pattern was repeated in many European countries, with only a handful of nations preferring to give Britain a good deal over a bad one.

The Ipsos-MORI survey also shows how nations around the world had mixed feelings about the UK's decision to leave the EU.
      Read More...
Jet2

According to state media, Erdogan cheated death when coup pilot ran out of fuel


RT
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 02:20 UTC
erdogan window
© www.rt.com
The rebel pilot of an F-16 that had the Turkish president's plane in its sights failed to strike only because the fighter jet ran out of fuel and had to change route, thus saving Erdogan's life during the coup attempt, the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper claims.

The F-16 tracked Erdogan's plane on its radar, but couldn't approach close enough to fire as its fuel was reportedly running low, forcing the pilot to abort the mission, according to Yeni Safak. The reason why the F-16 didn't fire had remained unknown until recently, with a former military officer familiar with the events cited by Reuters as saying it was "a mystery." "At least two F-16s harassed Erdogan's plane while it was in the air and en route to Istanbul," the officer noted.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed to cheat death twice overnight on June 15, Yeni Safak claims. Erdogan left the hotel in the resort town of Marmaris where he was on family holiday just "minutes" before an assassination squad came after him and then he evaded death in the air.

Comment: Really? If it was your mission to assassinate the president, wouldn't you check your fuel gauge before attempting the mission? At least pick a plane that has gas? And, how much fuel does it take to push a button? State news is always suspect. Verification? This sounds like a 'mystically-hyped divine providence' piece aimed to heroize Erdogan one more time in public limelight.

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts