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AFRICOM's gambit: Why a US military command is waging a 'media war' on Americans

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Thu, 28 May 2020 18:31 UTC
senegal army
© AFP / Seyllou
A regional US military command tasked with hunting down terrorists across Africa seems to be far more interested in waging psychological operations targeting the American public, the Pentagon and the White House. How curious.

Most countries in the world divide their own territory in military areas of responsibility. Not so the US, whose combatant commands span the entire globe - and beyond. One of these, the Africa Command (AFRICOM) is responsible for the entire African continent - with the exception of Egypt, which somehow ended up in the realm of the neighboring Central Command (CENTCOM).

Tasked with going after terrorist groups like Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), AFRICOM has recently focused its efforts on using friendly journalists, media leak and bombastic social media statements to bypass its military and civilian superiors and lobby in Washington for more power, influence and money.

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action," goes a quote attributed to James Bond author Ian Fleming. So it was definitely noticeable when AFRICOM made a third bid to attract attention in under a month.
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Star of David

Netanyahu pushes for West Bank annexation in his fight to avoid jail. But he is setting the Middle East on fire

Finian Cunningham
RT
Wed, 27 May 2020 18:19 UTC
netanyahu
© AFP / Abir Sultan
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reckless push to expand the annexation of Palestinian territory is a gambit to avoid jail over corruption charges. But it could blow up an already volatile Middle East.

Even Israeli security chiefs are increasingly alarmed by Netanyahu's push to expand the country's borders.

In a dubious historic first this week, the longest-serving Israeli prime minister also became the country's first sitting leader to be prosecuted on criminal charges. Arraigned before a court, Netanyahu could barely contain his outrage, denouncing the trial as a "fabrication" by his political enemies to "depose a strong leader."

If found guilty, the decorated war hero could wind up in jail for 10 years. At 70 years of age, 'Bibi' Netanyahu is fighting for his life and the preservation of his political legacy. He has always presumed his political ascent and the glorious fate of Israel to be intertwined.
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Bad Guys

Taliban delegation in Kabul for talks as Afghan officials blame the militant group for deadly attacks


RFE/RL
Thu, 28 May 2020 18:14 UTC
Taliban prisoners

Taliban prisoners are released from Bagram prison in Afghanistan's Parwan Province on May 26.
A Taliban delegation has arrived in Kabul for talks over a prisoner swap, just hours after Afghan officials blamed the militant group for two deadly attacks in the country's north and west.

The prisoner exchange is part of a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in February that called on the Afghan government to release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and for the militants to free around 1,000 government captives as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks.

"A technical delegation of the Taliban is in Kabul to work with a technical team of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the release of prisoners of both sides," said National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal on May 28.

Later in the day, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted that the group had released 80 Afghan soldiers and government officials from their jails in northern Baghlan and Kunduz provinces. It brings to more than 300 the number of captives freed by the Taliban since April.
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Propaganda

Moscow has secret Covid-19 CURE for chosen elite: Western media's favorite Russian pundit voices new conspiracy theory

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Wed, 27 May 2020 18:12 UTC
putin
© Sputnik/Alexey Druzhinin/Kremlin via REUTERS
As a rule, Western correspondents covering Russia - either by necessity or design - often use extreme or fringe voices to fit their reporting agendas. One of the most frequently cited may have finally jumped the shark this week.

A handful of Russian 'experts' frame the narrative in the US/UK media. The most widely featured include Tatyana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Center (an American think tank funded by George Soros, the US and UK governments, and the EU), Gleb Pavlovsky (a former Vladimir Putin adviser and political strategist, who was dismissed in 2011) and Valery Solovey, once a professor at Moscow's prestigious MGiMO University.

Putting aside Stanovaya (reasonable enough, albeit one-note) and Pavlovsky (so far past his sell-by date that he's a political museum piece) the continued platform granted to Solovey is incomprehensible. The academic is a David Icke-style conspiracy theorist who makes Alex Jones and Rachel Maddow look like perfectly balanced operators.
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Binoculars

Satellite images show China expanding airbase near Ladakh, Kashmir

Vishnu Som
NDTV
Thu, 28 May 2020 17:31 UTC
chinese airbase

The second image (right) dated May 21, this year, shows massive construction activity.
Satellite images show massive construction activity at a high altitude Chinese air base, located just 200 kilometres away from the Pangong Lake, the site of the skirmish between forces of India and China on May 5 and May 6.

Two images, exclusively sourced from the open source intelligence expert detresfa_ , an analyst with ShadowBreak Intl., show the Ngari Gunsa airport in Tibet. The first image is dated April 6, 2020 while the second one, dated May 21, this year, shows massive construction activity including the addition of what appears to be a second taxi-track or a secondary tarmac to position helicopters or combat aircraft. A third image shows a close-up of the main tarmac at the airport with a line-up of four fighter jets believed to be either J-11 or J-16 fighters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force.

The J-11/J-16 are advanced, domestically produced variants of the Russian Sukhoi 27 and broadly match the capabilities of the Indian Air Forces Sukhoi 30 MKIs, its most potent fighter until the arrival of the first batch of Dassault Rafales in a few weeks.

A caption on close-up image with the fighters indicates that their deployment at this base was first spotted in December 2019. The close up images now released help spotters identify the type of fighters deployed.

The location of the Ngari Gunsa air base is particularly significant. A dual-use military and civil airport which serves the town of Shiquanhe in the Ngari prefecture, the airport is located at 14,022 feet, which makes it among the highest in the world.

The advantage gained by its location close to the Line of Actual Control is balanced by the reality that fighter jets deployed at such an altitude can only carry limited war-loads and fuels.
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Star of David

Be very afraid: Israeli cyber czar warns of 'cyber winter' of attacks from Iran

Yonah Jeremy Bob
The Jerusalem Post
Thu, 28 May 2020 17:08 UTC
hacker v vendetta mask
© DADO RUVIC/REUTERS
A cyber winter is coming and it will be faster than suspected, Israel's cyber czar warned on Wednesday, a week after Iran tried hacking Israel's water system.

In a recorded speech for a Cybertech conference event slated for Thursday and obtained by The Jerusalem Post, National Cyber Directorate chief Yigal Unna provided striking new details about the Islamic Republic's hack and how Israel blocked it.

Unna neither confirmed nor denied that Israel launched a counter cyberattack against Iran's Shahid Rajaee port on May 9, but, in unusually open remarks for a senior defense official, he strongly implied that Iran should be wary of attempting future attacks against Israeli civilian infrastructure.

"We will remember this last month, May 2020, as a changing point in the history of modern cyberwarfare... What we faced here in Israel... the attempted attack, synchronized and organized attack," targeting civilian water infrastructure, "if it had been successful... we would now be facing in the middle of the corona crisis, a very big damage to the civilian population, a lack of water," Unna said.


Comment: Israeli spooks lie so brazenly and so frequently, we wouldn't be surprised if this attack never even happened - or was staged in order to let Unna's cyber spooks appear to swoop in to rescue the Jewish state from its dastardly enemies.


Further, he noted that when various chemicals are mixed with water in the wrong proportions - which could happen due to a hack - it "can be harmful and disastrous."
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Light Saber

DNI Grenell blasts Mark Warner: 'Stop cherry-picking' docs in Flynn case

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Tue, 26 May 2020 16:58 UTC
richard grenell
© Fox News
Richard Grenell
Outgoing Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell slammed Sen. Mark Warner Tuesday saying his request last week to declassify and publicly release the underlying intelligence reports in which Obama officials "unmasked" the identity of former national security advisor Michael Flynn would jeopardize sources and methods.

Grenell also criticized Warner's alleged political move as 'cherry picking' documents for political purposes at the expense of national security. Warner is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and spoke out against Grenell's declassification of the senior Obama officials that requested Flynn's private conversations and unmasking of his name.

"I find it puzzling that your letter initially complains about the declassification of the identities of unmaskers, a declassification that posed no conceivable risks to sources or methods, only to then request the declassification of actual intelligence reports," said Grenell.
"Cherry picking certain documents for release, while attacking the release of others that don't fit your political narrative, is part of the problem the American people have with Washington DC politicians. I would appreciate it if you would explain your philosophy on transparency as it appears to be based solely on political advantage."
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Fire

UN report: 81% of Ukraine shelling victims are innocent civilians of Donbass - and victims of Kiev aggression

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ News
Wed, 27 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Donbass victims
New data released in a UN report on human rights in Ukraine found that in 2019, in the Donbass at least 105 civilians became victims of shelling (dead and wounded) , 81% of them are residents of the DPR and LPR.

The conflict began six years ago when the Obama administration carried out a coup which installed a puppet government, whose policy involved the ethnic cleansing of the eastern part of the country of Ukraine who often self-identify as ethnic Russian.

Attempts to control the economy and legal system in Ukraine by Joe Biden through extra-legal means have become the subject of an ongoing scandal within the US.

In 2019, in the Donbass, 27 civilians were killed and 140 injured as a result of hostilities. This is 40% less than a year earlier (then there were 55 dead and 226 wounded). As a result, last year's indicators became the lowest for the entire period of the conflict.

Comment: Zelensky seems powerless to stop elements of his military from continuing the war against the Donbass separatists - who want nothing to do with with the US backed neo-Nazi contingent in Kiev that is still vying for power. What's worse, Ukraine's new president has turned out to be something of a mediocrity.

See also:

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Family

Ice Age Farmer Report: They want your children - State preparing to "Isolate" kids from parents


Ice Age Farmer
Mon, 25 May 2020 12:33 UTC
children
States are broadcasting their intention--and preparing logistics--to "isolate" children from their parents in the name of public health.

Talking points from the WHO provide the cover narrative, but the politically-motivated use of Child Protective Services by Governor Kate Brown in Oregon against a salon owner who defied the lockdown ALREADY demonstrates that this is nothing but a method of squelching dissent -- and a dangerous one.

Absolutely spread this message to all parents, particularly those in states/countries with leaders who are enabling the takeover of global technocratic collectivism.


Sources
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Jet5

Moscow refutes continued US allegations of Russian jets in Libya


RFE/RL
Wed, 27 May 2020 19:40 UTC
AFRICOM

A photo released by AFRICOM reportedly shows a Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum jet flying over Libya
The U.S. military has provided more details about an alleged Russian deployment of fighter jets to Libya, as officials in Russia continued to deny the presence of Russian military aircraft or personnel in the North African country.

The United States says Moscow deployed the jets to provide support for Russian mercenaries helping a local warlord battle Libya's internationally recognized government.

The alleged deployment could have a big impact on the war pitting the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar and forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is recognized by the United Nations.

Comment: See also: Moscow denies US general's unfounded claim of 'Russian mercenary jets in Libya'

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