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Rocket

Macron claims the 3 UNSC members' strike on Syria was legitimate


RT
Sun, 15 Apr 2018 18:59 UTC
Macron
© Francois Guillot/ReutersFrench President Emmanuel Macron (C) poses on the TV set before an interview with RMC-BFM journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin (R) and Mediapart investigative website journalist Edwy Plenel (L), at the Theatre National de Chaillot in Paris, France, April 15, 2018.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that the US-led strike on Syria was legitimate, but "history will judge" whether the operation was justified. He added that neither France nor its allies are at war with the country.

Macron was giving a live interview following the Saturday strike on Syria that was carried out without any resolution from the UN security council. The US-led attack, that hit three targets in Syria, a research center and military bases, was launched in response to an alleged chemical attack in Douma on April 7.

The French president defended the lack of a UN resolution before conducting the strikes against Syria, saying that it was "the international community" that intervened.
"We have complete international legitimacy to act within this framework," Macron said in the interview broadcast by BFMTV, RMC radio and Mediapart. "Three members of the Security Council have intervened."
Macron also alleged that he was the one who convinced US President Donald Trump to remain in Syria and that the coalition should limit their strikes to chemical weapons facilities.
"Ten days ago, President Trump was saying 'the United States should withdraw from Syria'. We convinced him it was necessary to stay," Macron said. "We convinced him it was necessary to stay for the long term."

Comment: 'Not at war' with Syria and yet France, US, UK bombed its facilities...in an act of 'friendship'?

See also:

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Footprints

Trump wants troops out of Syria 'ASAP', but it won't be very quick


RT
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 01:28 UTC
RefugeesUSboots
© unknown
US President Donald Trump wants to bring troops back from Syria as soon as possible, the White House said, but not before their goals are fulfilled. Earlier, the French president said he had convinced Trump the troops had to stay.

"The US mission has not changed - the president has been clear that he wants US forces to come home as quickly as possible," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement cited by Reuters. The US has some 2,000 troops and a number of military contractors acting in Syria. Before they go home, though, their mission has to be fulfilled.
"We are determined to completely crush ISIS and create the conditions that will prevent its return. In addition, we expect our regional allies and partners to take greater responsibility both militarily and financially for securing the region," Sanders said.
The goals outlined by Sanders were earlier mentioned by the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, in a Fox News interview. Haley's list was somewhat broader, though, adding monitoring Iran's activity and ensuring American interests are safe from Syrian President Bashar Assad's purported chemical weapons. The somewhat vague objectives, combined with Washington's refusal to hold any direct talks with Damascus and numerous demands for Assad to step down or be toppled, could effectively extend "as quickly as possible" to a nearly indefinite stretch.

Comment: Macron doesn't want to be left holding the bag so of course he wants US troops to stay. Haley doesn't create policy and should have no interpretation of military agenda. At the very least, Trump still has some instincts left in play, if he doesn't bow to the dictates of other countries or the whims of naive leaders. For the US: Less is more.

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Bomb

Trump allegedly wanted to bomb Russian and Iranian targets amid Syria strikes


RT
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 12:41 UTC
BoltonMattis
© MarketWatchNational Security Advisor John Bolton • Defense Secretary James Mattis
President Donald Trump reportedly favored bombing Russian and Iranian targets in Syria, before Pentagon chief James Mattis talked the US leader out of it.

Trump discussed three military options for Syria last week with his revamped national security team, led by Bush-era hawk John Bolton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with White House decision-making.

The least expansive option included striking "a narrow set of targets" linked to what the report said were "Syria's chemical weapons capabilities." The second option proposed targeting a broader set of Syrian targets, including "suspected chemical-weapons research facilities and military command centers."

Finally, the most aggressive proposal might have included bombing Russian air defenses in Syria, in order to "cripple the regime's military capabilities without touching [President Bashar] Assad's political machinery."

Comment: The report was from the Wall Street Journal's 'unspecified sources' - which can mean biased or faulty interpretations. More like: "the range of options and arguments for each are A, B, C. What will we pick?" The third option sounds inconsistent with Trump wanting to remove troops from Syria and continue to cooperate with Russia.

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Attention

Bolton has evolved his views on Syria

Anita Kumar, Franco Ordonnez, Tim Johnson
McClatchy
Sat, 14 Apr 2018 12:49 UTC
Bolton
© thedrive.comNational Security Advisor John Bolton
When President Barack Obama contemplated a military strike in Syria after its leader's use of chemical weapons five years ago, the pugnacious former U.N. ambassador John Bolton argued against intervention.

"I don't think it is in America's interest," Bolton said in a FOX interview in 2013. "I don't think we should in effect take sides in the Syrian conflict."

Yet for the last week, Bolton, President Donald Trump's new national security adviser, has been pushing for a more aggressive approach to Syria, illustrating his views in the region have changed dramatically as he has become more alarmed about the rise of influence by Russia and Iran, key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"Ultimately, he views the Syrian crisis through the lens of Iran and Iran's potential dominance in the region," said Mark Groombridge, a former Bolton aide at the State Department whom he brought as an adviser in 2005 when he became ambassador.

When the United States - along with France and Britain - launched military strikes on sites designed to destroy Assad's chemical weapons program in Syria on Friday, critics blamed Bolton. The liberal group People's Action described him as "John 'Bomb 'em all' Bolton" in a fundraising appeal to supporters Saturday.

Comment: Bolton's 'restraint' is better thought of as holding out for bigger action. He is not a make-nice nor tip-toe kind of guy. "The point of view that matters most here at the White House, as you well know, is the president's." Can Trump hold his ground? Double-teamed by Bolton and Pompeo, odds are stacked against it.

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Bug

'A Higher Loyalty' - Comey used presidential polls to determine whether or not Hillary was innocent in email probe

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Sat, 14 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Comey
© UnknownJames Comey
Principled Leadership.

Fired FBI Chief James Comey writes in his new book A Higher Loyalty that he let presidential polls determine how he decided that Crooked Hillary was innocent of crimes in the FBI criminal probe.

Vox reported:
In his new book A Higher Loyalty, former FBI Director James Comey admits what most observers had inferred: that the overwhelming conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton was going to win on Election Day played a role in his fateful decision to refocus the campaign on the email matter in late October.

"It is entirely possible," Comey writes, "that because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president, my concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls. But I don't know."
Once again, Trump was right for firing this buffoon.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Seal

The US bombing of Syria is only 'legal' if you are living in the law of the jungle

Jim Jatras
RT
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 19:24 UTC
us flag
© U.S. Navy
The full extent of the damage to international peace and security caused by the US-led Syrian strikes will take some time to become clear. But its impact on the very concept of legality in international affairs is already evident.

Simply put, the most powerful county in the world and its chief satellites, the UK and France, have thrown the rule of law into the trash can. The only "law" now is the law of the jungle. There is no going back.

Ironically, the attack itself was claimed by its perpetrators as enforcement of legality, not of its obliteration. For example, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces "a clear breach of international norms and agreements" that "calls for a collective and effective response by the international community."

Comment: The UN no longer exists as a functional entity. It is impotent against the imperial actions of the US. Whatever rule of laws that supposedly govern nation-states' behavior towards each other don't apply to the 'Exceptional' America, and the UN is completely unable to do anything about that. It might as well not exist. It wouldn't if it didn't exist as a tool for the US to manipulate countries. But it can't control Russia or China anymore, so it has abandoned international law itself while crowing aloud to the entire world when another country allegedly violates the same law it breaks with impunity. The US Empire's hypocrisy knows no bounds, and eventually the rest of the world is going to stop putting up with them, and then as the saying goes, the chickens will come home to roost.

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Telephone

Phone discussion between Putin and Rouhani: New Western Syria strikes would spark chaos


The Times of India
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 20:20 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© AP PhotoRussian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in Moscow on April 14, 2018
New Western air strikes in Syria would provoke "chaos" in international relations, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Sunday.

Speaking to Rouhani by telephone the day after US-led strikes on suspected chemical weapons facilities, Putin said "if such actions, carried out in violation of the United Nations Charter, are repeated, that would inevitably provoke chaos in international relations," according to a statement from the Kremlin.

Comment: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the "aggressive" US move to carry out military strikes against Syria reveals that Washington has direct ties with terrorists.
"The Americans showed such a reaction when they felt that the terrorists were dislodged from an important region like Eastern Ghouta," Rouhani said in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, a day after US-led strikes on Syria.
...

Rouhani told Putin that the joint military strikes against Syria were an "aggressive measure" aimed at boosting the defeated terrorists' morale.

He warned that if aggression and blatant violation of international regulations were to become easy and cost-free, "we would witness new instability in the regional and international system."

"The attack by the US and its allies against Syria showed that we are facing new problems and issues in the way of a final fight against terrorism in Syria and that we must have more consultation and cooperation with each other," the Iranian president told his Russian counterpart.
See also: Putin: Actions similar to coalition strikes in Syria will lead to chaos in international relations

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Cardboard Box

Trump is done and thank goodness Mattis was there to soften the strike against Syria

Tom Luongo
Tom Luongo's blog
Sat, 14 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
Trump Mattis
Last night's attack on Damascus was chilling. No question. It dredged up the worst possible scenarios from our sub-conscious and for a few hours made them real. Now that the dust has settled, and we see what's occurred (and what hasn't) it's time to draw some conclusions.

First thing's first. I reiterate what I said earlier in the week. Trump is finished. Read my article carefully, then overlay two things I didn't talk about. One, Trump is impulsive and easily manipulated. Two, Trump is ultimately a coward and an appeaser, just like The Saker pegged him to be after bombing Al-Shairat last year.

All bullies are cowards. That's why they bully.

Because of these personal defects, he gave his resignation speech last night. Be it later this year when he's impeached/forced to resign for a war crime or in January 2021 after losing to a baked potato, the anti-interventionist crowd who elected him will remember this for a long time.

I want to remind you of what happened last year with Al-Shairat. Trump bombed it while having dinner with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. A light show of sound and fury which ultimately did very little damage. But, it did not signify nothing.

It signified that Trump is out of his depth in foreign policy.
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Arrow Up

Russian MoD: Pantsir-S1 repelling US strikes on Syria showed 100% effectiveness


Sputnik
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 19:50 UTC
The Pantsir-S1 short-to-medium range gun-missile system
© Photo : Russian Defense MinistryThe Pantsir-S1 short-to-medium range gun-missile system at Russian airbase in Syria
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry had said that Syrian air defenses intercepted 71 of more than 100 missiles that the United States, the United Kingdom, France launched on Friday in response to the alleged chemical attack in Syria's Douma.

According to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, Russian-made Pantsir-S1 air defense system deployed by the Syrian forces showed almost 100% effectiveness in repelling the Western missile strike.

"In anti-aircraft combat, the Russian-made Pantsir S-1 system that had been previously supplied to the Syrian armed forces was actively used," he added.

Comment: Konashenkov's briefing is available here. Video below:


Notice this bit:
As it can be seen on the photograph of the facility in the Barza area, the nature of destruction as a result of a missile strike does not correspond to the scale of destruction from the use of three tens of cruise missiles.
You heard it here first. Konashenkov also broke down the success rates of the various systems used:
  • Pantsir - 23 hits with 25 engagements,
  • Buk-M2 - 24 of 29,
  • Osa - 5 of 13,
  • S-125 - 5 of 13,
  • Strela-10 - 3 of 5,
  • Kvadrat - 11 of 21,
  • S-200 - 0 hits with 8 launched missiles.
The S-200 is designed to hit aircraft, not cruise missiles, as Konashenkov pointed out.

See also:

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Bad Guys

Washington preparation of new sanctions on Russia 'undisguised economic aggression' - Moscow


Sputnik
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:15 UTC
Moscow night
© Sputnik/ Anton Denisov
Following a massive US strike on Syrian targets on April 17, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that the US was preparing new sanctions against Russia over Moscow's support of the Syrian government, adding that the measures would be announced on Monday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Monday that Moscow considered US politics to expand sanctions against Russia "unrestrained," adding that Russia wouldn't postpone its response to the new measures.

"I think that the schedule for reviewing this important bill will be set up so that we would not delay it [adoption] - the situation simply dictates the need for energetic efforts. We cannot specify now what will happen and when. But from a political point of view, as the Foreign Ministry, we see the need for this to be carried out quite dynamically," Ryabkov said.

Comment: The US is determined to continue digging a hole for itself. The bigger the lie, the more effort needed to cover it up. The more effort they put into covering up their lies, the more they expose themselves.

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