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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Erdogan Says Turkey Will Carry Out Operation in Syria East of Euphrates

kurds leave manbij
© Facebook / Syrian Defense Ministry
Kurdish militia wave flags as they depart the city of Manbij in northern Syria, January 2, 2019
Turkey will launch an operation in Syria in the east of the Euphrates River, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that Ankara already notified Russia and the United States about its plans.

"Now we would enter the [area] east of the Euphrates as we had entered Afrin, Jarablus, al-Bab [cities in Syria]. We shared this [information] with Russia and the United States", Erdogan announced during his speech in the city of Bursa in north-western Turkey.

He, however, did not reveal any other details about the upcoming operations, including the date of its start.

The territory in the east of the Euphrates is currently controlled by the self-defence forces which mainly include Kurdish-led militants.

Comment: Erdogan has threatened to conduct operations east of the Euphrates repeatedly over the past year or so, so we'll have to just wait and see if this time he's serious. For example (from October and December of last year): He also threatened to expand Turkey's Syria operation across the Euphrates in March of that year.


Boat

US pawn Australia to consider 'request' to join coalition protecting oil shipments in Persian Gulf

Pompeo/Payne
© AP/Rick Rycroft
US Sec of State Mike Pompeo • Australian FM Marise Payne
Australia is considering a "serious and complex" request from the United States to help protect oil shipments against Iranian interference in the Persian Gulf.

At their annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) talks in Sydney, the defence and foreign ministers of both countries met for discussions that spanned tensions with China over the South China Sea and a possible role for Australia in the Strait of Hormuz.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds confirmed she and Foreign Minister Marise Payne had canvassed the US request at Sunday's meeting but that "no decision had been made".
"We are deeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region, and we are strongly condemning the attacks on shipping in the Gulf. The request the US has made is a serious and complex one, that's why we're giving this request serious consideration. We will ultimately as we always do, decide what's in our sovereign interests."
Describing the US-Australia alliance as "unbreakable", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped the junior ally would partner with America on "some of the most pressing foreign policy challenges of our time, including Iran's unprovoked attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. I am very confident that we will have a global coalition."

Comment: See also:
Former Australian prime minister warns that U.S. is "a dangerous ally"


Footprints

Details emerge regarding infiltration attempt by Pakistani army

Indian soldier
© Danish Ismail/Reuters
Soldier at the wreckage of Indian Air Force's helicopter in Budgam district, Kashmir, 2019
Multiple attempts were made by terrorists to infiltrate into India by crossing the Line of Control between July 29 and July 31, sources told NDTV amid a massive security build-up in Jammu and Kashmir and the death of five infiltrators.

Intelligence agencies suggest that the terrorists are attempting a massive terror attack like the one that took place in Pulwama in February, where a suicide bomber targeted a convoy of the Central Reserve Police Forces and killed 40 personnel. Intelligence agencies said allowing the Amarnath Yatra to progress at this point is untenable.

One of the infiltration attempts was successful and four to five terrorists managed to enter, sources said. Besides, five men of Pakistan's Border Action Team or BAT were killed while they were trying to infiltrate into India and strike at a forward post in the Keran sector over the last two days.

Sources said it was a massive effort to target the Indian troops, which may have involved around 20 Pakistani regulars and terrorists. BATs usually try to maim or mutilate Indian soldiers by ambushing them. The BAT soldiers had crossed the Line of Control and the fence and they were eliminated only when they were very close to an Indian post in Keran.

Comment: More from RT: India test-fires 'quick reaction' air defense system
India has test-fired its state-of-the-art Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM). The all-weather and all-terrain missile mounted on a truck successfully hit its targets during the tests conducted on Sunday at a range in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. The Indian defense minister has shared photos and a video of the missile launch on his Twitter account.

The new air defense system boasts an operational range of 25-30 kilometers. It is also equipped with anti-jamming devices allowing it to penetrate the enemy's defenses. The missile already underwent a series of trials in 2017 and in February 2019. On Sunday, two missiles were used to hit the targets flying at different altitudes under different conditions, Indian media reported citing military sources, who hailed the system's high maneuverability.




Sherlock

Is UAE about to change sides and support the Yemeni Resistance?

fort russ yemen
© Fort Russ News
Abdul-Khaleq Abdullah, a former aide to Emirati Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed, said in a tweet that the war against Yemen is over for Abu Dhabi. In a tweet late on Saturday, Abdullah asserted that the UAE involvement in the Saudi-led war against Yemen is over and it will be soon announced officially.

"The UAE, from now on, will put all its political and diplomatic weight behind resolving the crisis and establishing peace for the people of Yemen," the senior Emirati figure underlined in his post.

In response to Abdullah's tweet, Ania El Afandi, an Algerian journalist, posted a tweet asking the Emirati figure why the UAE did not put its political weight, from the very outset, behind efforts for materializing peace. Then the Arab journalist questioned the game-over rhetoric of Abdullah, asking:

"War should come to an end officially, are your words addressing Saudi Arabia? Thirdly, will the blockade against Qatar be lifted if issues with Iran are solved?" she concluded.

Comment: See also: "Unwinnable": UAE withdrawing from Saudi-led war on Yemen


Propaganda

WaPo runs the drill: Publishes Gabbard smear piece filled with blatant lies

washington post democracy
© Washington Post
Not a hint of irony
The Washington Post, which is wholly owned by a CIA contractor who is reportedly working to control the underlying infrastructure of the global economy, has published a shockingly deceitful smear piece about Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard in the wake of her criticisms of her opponent Kamala Harris' prosecutorial record during the last Democratic debate.

The article's author, Josh Rogin, has been a cheerleader for US regime change interventionism in Syria since the very beginning of the conflict in that nation. It is unsurprising, then, that he reacted with orgasmic exuberance when Harris retaliated against Gabbard's devastating attack by smearing the Hawaii congresswoman as an "Assad apologist", since Gabbard has been arguably the most consistent and high-profile critic of Rogin's pet war agenda. His article, titled "Tulsi Gabbard's Syria record shows why she can't be president", is one of the most dishonest articles that I have ever read in a mainstream publication, and the fact that it made it through The Washington Post's editors is enough to fully discredit that outlet.

You can read Rogin's smear piece without giving Jeff Bezos more money by clicking here for an archive. There's so much dishonesty packed into this one that all I can do is go through it lie-by-lie until I either finish or get tired, so let's begin:

SOTT Logo Radio

MindMatters: The Truth About Doublespeak and the Antifa Handbook

doublespeak
© SOTT
In his dystopian classic 1984, George Orwell introduced the concept of newspeak. Better known today as doublespeak or doubletalk, even those who haven't read the book will probably recognize the phrases "war is peace" or "freedom is slavery". Orwell was inspired by the Soviets' abuse of language in their propaganda, something that leaders and PR firms everywhere engage in, but which was particularly pervasive in USSR and the nations who later adopted the Soviets' socialist model. But there's a deeper reason for doublespeak, revealed by Andrew Lobaczewski in his book Political Ponerology.

Today on MindMatters, we look at the Czech "Dictionary of Totalitarianism", a project by several Czech academics analyzing the vocabulary of propaganda during the socialist period in Czechoslovakia. Using statistical analysis, the researchers were able to identify which words came into prominence and attached with that suggestive, emotional flavor typical of totalitarians and pathocrats, the euphemisms and stereotyped phrases, and the slurs used to demonize political enemies. We also look at a more modern text of revolutionary and potentially totalitarian ideology, The Anti-Fascist Handbook.


Running Time: 01:06:53

Download: MP3 — 61.2 MB


Attention

Are the world's biggest powers prepping for something huge?

Military Drills
© Corbett Report
Are you keeping your eye on the news? Have you noticed any worrying patterns lately? Do you get the sense that we're drifting towards war? And not just another Libya-style "destroy the country and leave" war, but an all-out war war?

Don't worry, you're not the only one. There have been any number of developments in the last few weeks alone that feed into this narrative.

There was the tit-for-tat tanker seizures between Britain and Iran last month (with the MSM memory holing Britain's tit in the reporting on Iran's tat, of course), which has enabled the always-insightful Russian Foreign Ministry to conclude that the US "is simply looking for a pretext to whip up the situation" in the Persian Gulf (shocking, I know).

There is the still-escalating situation in Hong Kong, where US-backed regime change NGOs and authentically angry Hong Kongers are struggling against Beijing's encroachment on their regional autonomy (with China now warning the US to mind its own beeswax in the matter).

There was the incident over South Korea late last month where, depending on whose side of the story you trust, South Korean forces fired warning shots on Russian military aircraft that violated their airspace or innocent Russian peace planes were totally not violating anybody's airspace and no shots were even fired.

Oh, and there's the breaking news story as I write this article about the US formally withdrawing from the INF nuclear treaty, a Cold War-era arms control deal that had hitherto limited development of mid-range ground based nuclear missiles.

Yes, it's safe to say that the world is beginning to feel like a powder keg and each one of these incidents is a lit match.

But as bad as all of these stories sound, the reality is even worse! Let's take a look at a few recent developments that demonstrate how the world's biggest powers are prepping for something huge.

Network

Johnson ally's firm discreetly runs a Facebook propaganda network scam of 'professionalized' disinformation

Sir Lynton Crosby/Boris Johnson
© Heathcliff O'Malley/Telegraph/Toby Melville/Reuters
Sir Lynton Crosby and Boris Johnson
The lobbying firm run by Boris Johnson's close ally Sir Lynton Crosby has secretly built a network of unbranded "news" pages on Facebook for dozens of clients ranging from the Saudi government to major polluters, a Guardian investigation has found.

In the most complete account yet of CTF Partners' outlook and strategy, current and former employees of the campaign consultancy have painted a picture of a business that appears to have professionalised online disinformation, taken on a series of controversial clients and faced incidents of misogynistic bullying in its headquarters.

They said that such was the culture of secrecy within the firm that staff working on online disinformation campaigns, which selectively promoted their clients' viewpoints on anonymised Facebook pages that followed a common formula, used initials rather than full names on internal systems and often relied on personal email accounts to avoid their work being traced back to CTF and its clients.

Target

Trump wants a new nuclear deal with Russia and China after killing INF which ended Friday

TrumpNukes
© The Daily Beast
US President Donald Trump
On the same day the US ended a landmark 1987 arms control treaty, US President Donald Trump said he wanted a new, comprehensive nuclear deal with Russia and China. Can Moscow and Beijing trust Washington?

"We've been speaking with Russia about the pact for nuclear," Trump told reporters outside the White House on Friday, adding that "China is very excited about it" too.

This is not the first time the US president has brought up the ambitious nuclear weapons reduction plan. He first referenced it in April, arguing that the ultimate goal is to "get rid" of as many nuclear weapons as possible.

In practice, however, the Trump administration has poured billions of dollars into modernizing the US nuclear arsenal and Pentagon doctrines on the use of atomic weapons, while scrapping the landmark 1987 INF arms control treaty that kept the peace in Europe for over 20 years.

Comment: Additional from RT 3/8/2019: 'No winners' in INF collapse, but Russia 'will never lose an arms race' either!
Deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov: "The US withdrawal from the INF treaty jeopardizes everyone's security and may cause an arms race, but the US shouldn't count on winning it. The US decided to untie itself from an arms control treaty that kept their capabilities in this area at zero level for decades. No one will gain from the collapse of the INF. Everyone's security will be in jeopardy. Russia will never lose in this arms race. We have shown earlier our ability to find cost effective answers to any challenges we face."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that it would make no sense to compete with the US in the number of missiles and that parity should instead be achieved by producing a limited number of state-of-the-art hardware that surpasses American capabilities.
See also:


Bomb

US-backed opposition are prime suspects in the Bangkok bombings

Bangkok bomb site
© Unknown
Bangkok, Thailand bomb site
Several small bombs detonated across Bangkok on Friday, August 2, amid a meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) the US, China, and Russia. There were several injuries reported, but no deaths.

Despite a Western media deliberately feigning confusion over motives and possible suspects while attempting to depict the capital as "in chaos" and the current Thai government "humiliated" - its image "tarnished" - US-backed opposition groups are the prime suspects, their motives including growing desperation.

Also absent from Western media coverage was any genuine context surrounding Thailand's ongoing political crisis as foreign-backed opposition groups attempt to reverse the nation's growing ties with China, Russia, and developing nations across Eurasia.