Puppet MastersS


Rocket

Russia's advanced hypersonic glider Avangard now in military service


RT
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 18:38 UTC
Avangard
© Sputnik / Russia's Defense MinistryAn Avangard glider before getting loaded into a silo.
The advanced Russian nuclear hypersonic glider entered combat service on Friday with the first regiment of Avangard-armed missiles now operational, the defense minister reported.

Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who reported the development to President Putin on Friday, said Avangard deployment was "a signatory event for the country and the armed forces."

The Russian military armed legacy silo-based UR-100N ICBMs, also known as the Stiletto, with the cutting-edge warheads meant to penetrate heavy anti-ballistic missile defenses.


The glider is one of several weapons systems meant to boost Russian nuclear deterrence, which were announced by President Vladimir Putin last year. The build-up is meant to counter Washington's development of ABM technologies, which Russia sees as a national threat.

The Russian president believes Russia's nuclear forces need to be strong enough to dissuade any temptation that US military strategists may have to deliver a pre-emptive strike against Russia during a possible crisis. The missile regiment is reportedly deployed in the Orenburg region.

Comment: See also:

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Pirates

Assad to sue US over open theft of Syria's oil

Tsvetana Paraskova
OilPrice.com
Thu, 26 Dec 2019 18:09 UTC
us steal syrian oil soldier deir ezzor
© Reuters / Aboud HamamAn American soldier sits on a military vehicle, at al-Omar oil field in Deir Al Zor, Syria
Syria's government is considering suing the United States in an international court over what a senior advisor to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad referred to as the 'stealing' of Syria's oil.

"Syria is looking into the possibility of filing an international lawsuit against the United States, due to the fact that they steal Syrian oil," Bouthaina Shaaban, Syrian Presidential Adviser, told Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV in an interview, carried by Iran's Fars news agency.

After a surprise announcement of pulling the US troops out of Syria in October, US President Donald Trump said that the United States would protect Syrian oil fields from ISIS.

Comment: Defense World put out this report in November:



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Blackbox

Does India's Citizenship Amendment Act expose Pakistan's religious discrimination more than Bangladesh and Afghanistan?

Prabhash K Dutta
India Today
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:50 UTC
India Pakistan Modi Khan
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan
While protests at home over the Citizenship Amendment Act remains a challenge for the government, the new Indian law brings international focus on religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The Narendra Modi government may be facing a plethora of problems over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but the move has its ripple effect on the three neighbouring countries whose nationals are living in India as illegal immigrants, some of whom can now own a nationality once again.

While domestically, the Citizenship Amendment Act suits the ruling BJP's nationalist Hindutva constituency, internationally, the law brings focus on religious persecution of non-Muslims in India's neighbourhood, particularly in Pakistan.

Of the three countries, whose nationals are targeted beneficiaries of the Citizenship Amendment Act, Pakistan has been most vocal in its opposition to the new law. Incidentally, it is Pakistan that has received maximum flak from international agencies and human rights groups over persecution of minorities in that country.

Comment:

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Binoculars

Senior OPCW official ordered deletion of 'all traces' of dissenting report on 'Douma chemical attack' - WikiLeaks' new leak


RT
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:43 UTC
douma girl
© Reuters / White Helmets / Reuters TVA girl looks on following alleged chemical weapons attack, in what is said to be Douma, Syria in this still image from video obtained by Reuters on April 8, 2018.
The leadership of the chemical weapons watchdog took efforts to remove the paper trail of a dissenting report from Douma, Syria which pointed to a possible false flag operation there, leaked documents indicate.

In an internal email published by the transparency website WikiLeaks on Friday, a senior official from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) ordered that the document be removed from the organization's Documents Registry Archive and to "remove all traces, if any, of its delivery/storage/whatever."


The document in question is a technical assessment written by inspector Ian Henderson after a fact-finding mission to Douma, a suburb of Damascus, in the wake of an alleged chlorine gas attack. Western politicians and media said at the time that the government forces had dropped two gas cylinders as part of an offensive against jihadist forces, killing scores of civilians.

The OPCW inspector said evidence on the ground contradicted the airdropping scenario and that the cylinders could have been placed by hand. Considering that the area was under the control of anti-government forces, the memo lands credence to the theory that the jihadists had staged the scene to prompt Western nations to attack their opponents.

Comment: The OPCW's Douma propaganda narrative is falling to pieces. Unfortunately, it's hard to say "we told you so", because the vast majority of people who believed such nonsense at the time will never even learn that they were duped. And they probably wouldn't care much if the DID discover this fact. The damage is done.

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War Whore

Brennan admits 'there were mistakes made' in FISA applications, suggests FBI was 'overly aggressive'

Joseph A. Wulfsohn
Fox News
Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:00 UTC
brennan
© Associated Press
Former CIA Director John Brennan, an outspoken critic of President Trump, acknowledged Tuesday that "there were mistakes made" in the highly controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application process during the Russia investigation as reported by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Appearing on MSNBC, Brennan was asked by host Chris Hayes about "abuses" uncovered by Horowitz, who claimed he found 17 significant errors in the renewed FISA applications into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, while Horowitz was a member of the Obama administration.

"Well clearly, there were mistakes made based on the inspector general's reports," Brennan responded. "And I know that a lot of people attribute it to either to incompetence or politicization. Well, I might just attribute it to, these were FBI agents who were doing their level best to try to prevent Russia interference in the election."
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Red Flag

Flashback Former US attorney on Awan indictment: 'There is something very strange going on here'

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Wed, 23 Aug 2017 17:41 UTC
wasserman shultz awan
© Facebook / ReutersImran Awan (L), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (R)
We've written frequently over the past couple of months about the litany of unanswered questions surrounding the mysterious case of Debbie Wasserman Schultz's (DWS) IT staffers. Why did DWS seemingly threaten the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police with "consequences" for holding equipment that was confiscated as part of an ongoing legal investigation? Why did DWS keep Awan on her taxpayer funded payroll all the way up until the day he was arrested by the FBI at Dulles airport while trying to flee the country to Pakistan? What, if anything, does the Awan family know about the DNC hacks that may have caused DWS to act in this way?

Now, Andrew McCarthy III, the former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who led the prosecution against Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, says there is "something very strange" about the recent indictment filed against Imran Awan and his wife Hina Alvi in the District of Columbia.

Comment: Previously:

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Info

Flashback FBI sources: Awan investigation might have been rigged to protect Obama, Lynch, Holder, Wasserman and Congressional Democrats


True Pundit
Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:36 UTC
holder obama lynch
The fix was in to protect Justice Department officials as high up as the US Attorney General even before the Awan investigation started, FBI veterans with knowledge of the case now fear.

And so far President Barack Obama, who appointed the US Attorney in the District of Columbia who is slow walking the case, has proven insulated too from an investigation now on the fringes of exposing espionage and blackmail of Democratic members of Congress.

The US Attorney in DC is Channing Phillips, who worked for Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder in key roles during their tenures as US Attorney General. Phillips was appointed by Obama shortly before the Awan grand jury convened. The confirmation of Phillips' replacement nominated by President Donald Trump has been stalled by Sen. Chuck Schumer for eight months.

The explosive Awan case could also possibly implicate Obama as well as former attorneys general Holder and Lynch. Those tenets have not been lost on veteran federal agents with knowledge of the evidence unfolding in this complicated case against a family of alleged Pakistani IT gurus linked to dozens of Congressional Democrats, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Comment: More on the Awan scandal:

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Bizarro Earth

UN Secretary General 'deeply concerned' over US visa delays for Russian diplomats - spokesman


RT
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 21:30 UTC
Guterres
© Reuters / Denis BalibouseFILE PHOTO: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been alarmed by Washington delaying the visa application process for Russian officials, his spokesman told TASS, a day after the Russian Foreign Ministry slammed Guterres for inaction.

Guterres will "closely follow" the ongoing visa dispute that particularly affects Russian officials designated to work at the UN Headquarters in New York, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told the news agency.

Dujarric said the issue has been repeatedly raised by UN officials and even mentioned in the latest report by the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country. The UN committee's report indeed mentions the matter of "non-issuance of entry visas to certain representatives of certain Member States," calling on Washington to tackle this problem and respect diplomatic norms.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of Julian Assange

Cassandra Fairbanks
Gateway Pundit
Fri, 27 Dec 2019 00:00 UTC
Assange
Reporters Without Borders is calling for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ahead of the hearing that will determine if he is extradited to the United States.

The organization is also calling for the US to drop the Espionage Act charges against him.

Assange is imprisoned in the United Kingdom and faces eighteen charges under the Espionage Act in the United States for his publication of the Iraq and Afghan War Logs. If extradited and convicted, he could be face a maximum sentence of 175 years for the "crime" of publishing material that the US government did not want the population to know.

"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by reports that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's health has deteriorated in detention, and calls for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds. RSF condemns the continued targeting of Assange for his journalistic-like activities, which sets a dangerous precedent," the organization said in a statement.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

Trump had private meetings with enlisted troops for candid discussions on war in Afghanistan

David Choi
Business Insider
Wed, 25 Dec 2019 17:27 UTC
Trump military officers
© Associated Press
"I don't want any generals in here. I don't want any officers. I just want enlisted guys."

Months after becoming president in 2017, Donald Trump began taking meetings with enlisted U.S. service members who deployed to Afghanistan in order to get a better understanding of America's longest war.

"I want to sit down with some enlisted guys that have been there," Trump told advisers, according to the national-security journalist Peter Bergen's latest book, Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos.

"I don't want any generals in here. I don't want any officers," Trump added, according to Bergen's book, which is sourced from dozens of interviews with current and former White House officials and military officers. "I just want enlisted guys."

Comment: More evidence of Trump's pragmatic approach to government as a business management issue. Get real data and act accordingly. The problem is such an approach would shut down the MIC's ideological gravy train.

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