Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Israeli strikes on Syria kill several Iraqi PMU fighters


PressTV
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 18:32 UTC

Comment: This is exactly what the US Air Force did to Iraqi anti-ISIS PMU forces on December 29th...


iraqi pmu pmf
© AFP 2019 / Ahmad Al-Rubaye
Israel has launched several airstrikes on eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, killing at least eight fighters of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a key player in the fight against Daesh and other Takfiri groups in the region.

The air raids struck trucks and weapons depots in Albu Kamal in eastern Syria early Friday, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The group said "unidentified aircraft" targeted the area, but Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen news outlet said Israel was responsible for the strikes.

SOHR chief Rami Abdurrahman said the airstrikes killed at least eight forces of the PMU, better known by their Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, and wounded several others.

The Israeli regime has a long record for attacking forces fighting Daesh terrorists in Syria. The recent air raids were the latest in a series of attacks that have targeted positions of the Hashd al-Sha'abi forces across the region over the past months.

Comment: AP reports:
Another Iraqi official said those targeted belong to the Imam Ali Brigades, an Iran-backed faction within the PMF. The three Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.

Israel has repeatedly struck Iran-linked targets in Syria in recent years and has warned against any permanent Iranian presence on the frontier.

Deir Ezzor 24, an activist collective that reports on news in the border area, said the planes struck trucks carrying weapons as well as depots for ballistic missiles in the area. Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist from Syria's eastern Deir el-Zour area who runs the group, said the attack triggered "a huge explosion" heard in the Syrian-Iraqi border.

The Sound and Picture, another activist collective in the Deir el-Zour area, said "unidentified planes" struck militia targets in Boukamal. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities.
The weapons were allegedly on their way to Lebanese Hezbollah.

The U.S. and Israel can't get enough killing the forces who are actually fighting ISIS. They may have their reasons - however mendacious and facile, or simply self-serving - but they really should consider the image this presents.

Seriously, even ISIS praised the killing of Soleimani. If they keep this up, the Israelis and Americans will be seen as in league with ISIS by an increasing number of the world public.

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Boat

Videos of Russian warship's 'aggressive approach' actually show US Navy violating maritime law - Russian MOD


RT
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 18:08 UTC
arabian sea US fifth fleet
© Twitter / US 5th FleetA screenshot taken from a video published by the US Fifth Fleet on Twitter.
The Russian defense ministry has dismissed claims by the US Fifth Fleet that a Russian navy ship "aggressively approached" USS Farragut in the North Arabian Sea. It was the US vessel that broke the rules, it said.

The US Naval Forces Central Command on Friday accused a "Russian Navy ship" of provoking a near-collision with the US Navy destroyer USS Farragut in the North Arabian Sea.

In a statement, that was promptly picked up by many western outlets, the US Navy said that the Russian vessel had "aggressively approached" the American destroyer during the incident on Thursday. It claimed the Russian ship ignored its warnings about a potential collision before ultimately altering its course.

Comment: The US Navy has a long, lamentable record of incompetence:

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Chess

Oman's Sultan Qaboos, a negotiator in a volatile region, has died


Al Jazeera
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 17:38 UTC
Oman Sultan Qaboos
© Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters/FileOman's late Sultan Qaboos was lauded for his progressive domestic policies and effective foreign diplomacy
Qaboos was a direct descendant of the founder of the Al Bu Said dynasty and he ruled the Gulf state since 1970.

Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said died on Friday after half a century as the country's ruler. The late sultan was born on November 18, 1940, in Salalah, the capital of Oman's southern province of Dhofar.

Qaboos is a direct descendant of the founder of the Al Bu Said dynasty, which created the sultanate in the 1600s after expelling the Portuguese from Muscat, now Oman's capital. He was educated in India and at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

After completing his military training with the British army in Germany, he studied local government and embarked on a global cultural tour. He returned to Oman in 1964, and spent most of his time thereafter studying Islamic law and Omani history.

When Sultan Qaboos seized power from his father in a bloodless coup in 1970, Oman was an isolated and impoverished state.

Comment: The Omani military was put on precautionary alert until a new ruler is appointed:
Dozens of armored vehicles and soldiers were seen in the streets of Muscat following the death of Omani Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said. The government confirmed that Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said was sworn in as the new ruler.

In addition to declaring the alert status, which appears to be little more than a precaution, Oman's high military council also called for the royal family to meet to appoint the country's next ruler.


Oman's official television channel announced the inauguration of Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said as sultan of the country on Saturday.

Haitham bin Tariq Al-Said pledged to follow the late sultan's 'non-interference' policy, based on peaceful coexistence and maintaining friendly ties with all nations.
Sputnik reports Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Oman's Minister of Heritage and Culture, is Oman's new head of state:
Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Oman's Minister of Heritage and Culture, has succeeded Qaboos bin Said al-Said as the country's monarch, the government confirmed.


​Omani newspaper Al-Watan reported that the official, who is Qaboos' cousin, had taken the oath to become the country's Sultan.


Similarly, the sultanate's Al-Roya newspaper reported that the culture minister had taken the oath and affirmed the continuation of the country's modernisation and development in various fields.




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Arrow Up

A peek at the decade ahead

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 17:33 UTC
Decade Ahead
© Corbett Report
Well, that didn't take long. You'll recall that it was mere weeks ago that I predicted that the trend of 2020 would be "The End of the Internet (as we've known it)," and, sadly, before 2019 was even finished a steady stream of stories flooded the newswires to prove me correct.

Morocco has sentenced a YouTuber to four years in prison for daring to insult the king.

The Singaporean government has forced Facebook to publish a "correction" on a post that they deemed to contain "fake news."

Four townships in northern Myanmar remain under one of the longest internet blackouts in the world for daring to assert a desire for ethnic self-determination.

And Russia and China have teamed up on a new convention that will empower the UN to convene a panel of "international experts" to determine how best to combat online thought crime.

And all of that was just in the past few weeks. Imagine what we have to look forward to throughout the rest of 2020. Not pleasant, is it?

Now imagine what we'll have to look forward to through the 2020s. Even worse, huh?

Yes, as bleak as things seem at the moment, there are any number of reasons to believe that things are going to be that much worse a decade from now. And I'm not just talking about internet censorship here, either. After all, as dedicated Corbett Reporteers will already know, the technocrats are all on board for Agenda 2030.

So buckle in, folks. Let's take a ride through the next ten years of technocratic tyranny . . . and see if there's a way we can derail this agenda before we arrive at its final destination.
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Vader

Best of the Web: The deeper story behind Soleimani's assassination: Thwarting Chinese reconstruction of Iraq

Federico Pieraccini
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 09 Jan 2020 17:04 UTC
soleimani funeral baghdad
© Abein Taherkenareh/EPA-EFE/REX)Iranians attend the funeral ceremony of Qassem Soleimani
Days after the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, new and important information is coming to light from a speech given by the Iraqi prime minister. The story behind Soleimani's assassination seems to go much deeper than what has thus far been reported, involving Saudi Arabia and China as well the U.S. dollar's role as the global reserve currency.

The Iraqi prime minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, has revealed details of his interactions with Trump in the weeks leading up to Soleimani's assassination in a speech to the Iraqi parliament. He tried to explain several times on live television how Washington had been browbeating him and other Iraqi members of parliament to toe the American line, even threatening to engage in false-flag sniper shootings of both protesters and security personnel in order to inflame the situation, recalling similar modi operandi seen in Cairo in 2009, Libya in 2011, and Maidan in 2014. The purpose of such cynicism was to throw Iraq into chaos.

Comment: That is really dynamite stuff from the Iraqi PM. Trump apparently threatened to assassinate him... to his face. As for siccing snipers on rent-a-crowds, now we have clear proof - from the horse's mouth - that this is what the US does to other countries.

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Pirates

Best of the Web: ISIS praises US murder of Soleimani as 'divine intervention' that will help them rise again


RT
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 17:23 UTC
ISIS
© Flickr / Day Donaldson
Islamic State terrorists rejoiced at the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani at the hands of his American 'allies,' according to a weekly newspaper affiliated with the group that once controlled much of Syria and Iraq.

Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike on January 3, as he was being driven, with others, near Baghdad international airport. In reprisal, Iran launched a limited strike on US bases in Iraq with ballistic missiles on Tuesday, causing no casualties but demonstrating a capability to hit US assets at will.

The weekly Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) newspaper Al-Naba portrayed Soleimani's death as an act of god in support of its cause, and Muslims in general, according to BBC Monitoring.


Comment: Yep, you read that right. ISIS's god is acting through the American military, apparently.



An editorial in the jihadi paper was careful not to credit the US or even mention Soleimani by name. It couched the gloating in a historical analogy, referring to "Roman-Persian wars" that enabled early Muslims to overrun both Persia - today's Iran - and parts of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium.

Comment: It's not just ISIS. Shaikh Muhaysni, tied to al-Qaeda in Syria, is also ecstatic that Soleimani is dead. You'd think more people would find it a bit curious that ISIS, al-Qaeda, the U.S. and Israel all share the same outlook.

You'd almost think they're working together on some level.

But no, that's just crazy talk... right?



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Bullseye

The Saker: Recent events in the conflict between the AngloZionist Empire vs Iran

The Saker
thesaker.is
Thu, 09 Jan 2020 15:57 UTC
Trump y Rohani Rouhani
US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
First, since we have more reliable data about what happened, let me recap a few key points to being:
  1. It is has now become pretty clear that Iran took several steps to make sure that the US would know when and where the strike would happen. Specifically, Iran warned the Iraqi government and the Swiss diplomats who represent US interests in Iran.
  2. Yet, at the same time, Iran issued the strongest threat it could possibly issue: it told the US that *any* counter-strike aimed at Iran would result in a strong Iranian attack on Israel.
  3. The US quite clearly took the decision not to retaliate and to "forget" Trump's promise to strike at 54 Iranian targets. I want to stress here that this was the correct decision under these circumstances. [emphasis added]
  4. It also appears that the Iranians were able to somehow retrofit some kind of terminal guidance capability on missiles which originally lacked it.
  5. The level or precision of the strikes was absolutely superb and quite amazing.
  6. Trump declared that Iran decided to step down and that the US had prevailed. This notion is, of course, prima facie ridiculous, but not for folks getting their news from the corporate media.
  7. The Iranians declared that this specific strike was now over, but immediately added that this was only a first measure and that other would follow.
Next, I want to share a few interesting photos with you.

Comment: Soleimanie's assassination and the subsequent demonstration missile attack on the US Iraqi base by Iran has had wider repercussions:
Indian officials are alarmed by new security risks arising from the use of UAVs after a US drone strike killed Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.

The country's authorities are considering an update to recently adopted regulations on drones, which are due to take effect this month, the Indian Express reported on Friday, citing two high-ranking government sources.

"There is a realization of the need to up the guard [on who gets licenses]... there will be a step back on that," a source said, explaining that the existing drone policy requires "careful reassessment, given the new risks."

According to the report, the authorities were alarmed by the drone attack on two Saudi oil refineries in September, which temporarily crippled the country's oil production, and last week's US drone strike that killed several senior Iranian and Iraqi officials, including Major General Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force. It is believed that the strike on Soleimani was carried out by an MQ-9 Reaper spy and combat UAV.


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Eye 2

Deep State preemptively blaming Russia for Creepy Joe's coming election flop, sets stage for a crackdown on dissent

Helen Buyniski
RT
Sat, 11 Jan 2020 15:30 UTC
joe biden
© Reuters / Mike BlakeNo, not the bots!
The American political establishment is already lining up excuses for losing the 2020 election, blaming a Russian "disinfo" campaign -again!- for the flailing campaign of Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden.

As Biden, once the solid favorite in Democrat primary polls, continues to tank, the usual suspects are emerging to pin his fall from grace on the Kremlin, and not Biden's own mouth, problematic family members, or uninspiring policies.

The former vice president's once-certain status as the establishment favorite for the nomination has faded, with even CNN taking shots at him recently after he lied about his early and enthusiastic support for the Iraq war. Institutional Russophobes would have voters believe their growing disillusionment with the moderate centrist was impalanted by Kremlin propaganda, however.

Comment: If Russia really was behind the campaign to discredit Biden, they would be doing the American public a huge favor. But no worries, Creepy Joe's doing a fine job on his own.

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X

Pompeo: I lied about Soleimani 'imminent attacks'

Daniel McAdams
Ron Paul Institute
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 00:01 UTC
Mike Pompeo
Trump's neoconservative Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is a man unafraid to admit to being a liar. In fact he seems to revel in his ability to lie to the American people.

Remember just a week ago when Pompeo told us that the US absolutely HAD to send in a drone to assassinate Iran's top general, Qassim Soleimani, while he was in Iraq on a peace mission because he was planning "imminent attacks" on US personnel and interests in the Middle East?

These claims were crafted to blunt any criticism of the blatantly illegal act of killing a top military officer of a country with which you are not at war in a third country (which forbade the attack on its soil) with which you are allied. Americans raising concerns about the murder of Soleimani were to be made to look unpatriotic if they objected: "you mean you WANT Americans die??"

Comment: See also:

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Attention

FBI apologizes to court for botching surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page, and pledges fixes

Charlie Savage
The New York Times
Fri, 10 Jan 2020 00:01 UTC
FBI Headquarters
© Tom Brenner for The New York TimesThe F.B.I. acknowledged serious errors and omissions in the facts it put forward for wiretap applications targeting a former Trump campaign adviser.
In a rare public filing, the bureau said it would extend wiretap changes to other tools for collecting data on suspected spies and terrorists.

A chastened F.B.I. told a secretive court on Friday that it was increasing training and oversight for officials who work on national security wiretap applications in response to problems uncovered by a scathing inspector general report last month about botched surveillance targeting a former Trump campaign adviser.

In a rare unclassified and public filing before the court that oversees wiretapping under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the F.B.I. also said it would extend its overhaul to requests for orders permitting it to collect logs of its targets' communications and other business records — not just wiretaps of the contents of phone calls and emails.

"The F.B.I. has the utmost respect for this court and deeply regrets the errors and omission identified by" the inspector general, wrote the F.BI. director, Christopher A. Wray, in a statement included with the filing. He called the conduct described by the report "unacceptable and unrepresentative of the F.B.I. as an institution."

Comment: See also:

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