Comment: Zuckerberg tells media of 3-year plan to be able to control information on Facebook - just in time for 2020 election

Comment: For the latest accusations against Manafort, see: Paul Manafort approved media 'black ops' to help Yanukovych

Comment: See also: Syrian T-4 airbase in Homs province hit by airstrikes - UPDATE: Israel did it

Comment: See also:

• Human rights lawyer: No evidence Lula is corrupt - Brazilian prosecutor wants him to prove innocence AFTER beginning 12-year prison sentence!
• Permanent state of coup: Brazilian court orders favored presidential candidate Lula to prison
• Pro-Lula protesters close roads and highways in 16 Brazilian states

Comment: On Monday evening, President Donald Trump will meet senior Pentagon officials with his new mega-hawk National Security Advisor John Bolton taking part. Bolton enters the office with a brand new pretext to bomb Syria.

Bolton, a key player in building the George W Bush administration's fraudulent case for attacking Iraq, starts his tenure in the Trump administration this week. One of the first matters requiring his advice will be America's reaction to a reported chemical-weapons attack in Syria. Reports of the alleged attack came from pro-jihadist sources and could not be confirmed by Red Crescent medics on the ground. But Trump has already threatened Syrian President Bashar Assad with consequences for the strike, and also invented an insulting nickname for him.

So what advice can Bolton - a man with a long record of advocating more military action against Syria, Iran, North Korea and whoever challenges America - give to his determined boss? We can only wonder, although some say digging fallout shelters may be a good idea now.

The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news website reported that Jeish al-Islam commanders were waiting for the US military operations against Syria while violating the agreement to leave Douma in Eastern Ghouta.

Jeish al-Islam terrorists killed and wounded over 50 civilians with mortar attacks after violating the ceasefire deal and refrained from leaving Douma, provocating the Syrian army's response.

They also launched false-flag chemical operations in the region and killed and wounded hundreds of civilians to raise allegations against the Syrian army.

Analysts believe that all moves made by the terrorists in Douma in the past two days were based on a pre-planned scenario by the US, the western states and supporters of terrorist groups in Syria to find a pretext for Washington to launch military operations against Damascus.

The Russian military command suddenly puts troops on full combat alert, movements of combat vehicles and missile systems observe almost all over the country.

An activity of Russian troops is most notable in the Western part of Russia, near the borders with Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus, as well as in the Transbaikal region and the Far East. On April 8-9 active movements of a large number of military vehicles and tanks, also were seen moving of the Iskander missile systems with Air Defence support.

Some source reported about deploying command and control systems on main military naval bases and military airfields.

Russian defence officials refused to comment on any moving of troops.

Comment: A reminder from The Saker:

We have no facts. Some reports say that the USA attacked, other that it was Israel or even France. The truth is that we won't know for sure for at least 24 hours. Whoever attacked will present that as a huge success. Don't believe it! The last time around it took several days to find out what really happened.

Also, at least so far, I hear about "5 cruise missiles". If that is the truth, then this is a totally symbolic act, which is good. There might be much much more before dawn, but we have to wait and see. If the French or Israelis did it, that is also good news (more symbolic nonsense which both of these countries love to engage in).

[Sidebar: if the Americans go for the real thing, we will see *hundreds* of missiles just in the first wave, so all this 5 (or 8) missiles stuff is very very good news indeed (at least compared to what it could be!)]

Update: Massive explosions were heard in the eastern countryside of the Homs Governorate, tonight, after unknown jets entered Syrian airspace from Lebanon.

According to a military source in Damascus, the Syrian Air Defense system was deployed from the Mezzeh Air Base after the jets entered Syria from Lebanon's Beqa'a Valley.

Some early reports indicate that the jets were Israeli, as this is the route they usually take before bombing the Syrian military.

There is still no confirmation regarding the cause of the blasts or if the warplanes were Israeli or U.S.

The Israeli government has refused to respond to reports of a missile strike on a Syrian airbase in Homs province, which it had earlier bombed in February.

According to the pan-Arab TV channel Al-Mayadeen, an Israeli surveillance plane was spotted over the base in Homs at the moment of the rocket strike.

"An Israeli reconnaissance plane was overflying the T-4 airbase in Homs struck by missiles," the broadcaster reported, citing sources.

It has also reported that the missiles were coming from the Mediterranean Sea through Lebanon. At the same time, Israel, which bombed the same base in February, has abstained from commenting on the incident.

Update: Reports have been circulating that Hezbollah and Iranian military personnel were among some of the casualties suffered in an Israeli missile strike against the Syrian T-4 airbase on very early Monday morning.

According to the Russian military, the strike saw Israeli F-15's fire eight cruise missiles at the T-4 site of which five were intercepted by Syrian air defenses before hitting their intended marks - the remaining 3 missiles are said to have struck the western part of the military airport.

Up to fourteen military personnel, including Iranians, present at the T-4 airbase may have been killed in the missile attack says a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Israeli Defense Forces have accused Iran of controlling the Tiyas airbase, from which the army said the Iranian drone was shot down over northern Israel.

"Iran and the Quds Force [Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' special unit] for some time have been operating the T-4 Air Base in Syria next to Palmyra, with support from the Syrian military and with permission from the Syrian regime," the IDF's statement read.

Israel claimed that the base was used by the Quds Force to transport sophisticated weaponry to "Syria, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in the region."

Update 9 April 2018 - 11am CET

The Russian MoD states that Israel launched 8 missiles from 2 fighter jets, and that 5 of them were 'intercepted':

In a statement on Monday, the Russian military said: "Two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the T-4 airfield." The Israeli aircraft did not enter Syrian airspace and launched the strikes while flying over Lebanon.

"Syrian air defense units have shot down five guided missiles," the military said, but confirmed that three of the missiles "reached the western part of the airfield."

The Israeli embassy in Moscow refused to comment on the Russian Defense Ministry's report, Alex Gandler, the diplomatic mission's press attache, told Sputnik.

Update: FARS reports that 4 Iranians were killed: Seyed Ammar Moussavi, Medi Lotfi Niyasar, Akbar Zawwar Jannati, and Mehdi Dehqan Yazdeli. Not the "up to 14" reported by SOHR.

After the missile attack, the ISIS pocket in east Homs tried to launch an offensive (Israel is ISIS's air force, after all).

While the Israeli military has been largely silent - saying they have "no comment" on the Russian statement - 2 U.S. officials have reportedly confirmed it to NBC, saying that Israel had notified the U.S. of its intention to launch the attack.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry has written a letter to the UN Secretary General:

"The Israeli attack constitutes an indirect response to the success of the Syrian Arab Army in eliminating armed terrorist groups from the Damascus suburbs and other Syrian areas," the Syrian Foreign Ministry wrote in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obtained by Syria's SANA news agency.

"These groups helped to kill the Syrian people, abduct civilians and use them as human shields. Three thousand shells in just three months have led to the deaths of 155 citizens and wounded 865 civilians, mostly women and children."

The letter states that there will be "serious repercussions" for Israel's attack, reaffirming that Syria "will not hesitate to exercise its right to defend its territory, people and sovereignty in all the ways guaranteed by the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of international humanitarian law and international law."

The letter also called upon the UN Security Council to "condemn these blatant Israeli aggressions and to take resolute and immediate action to prevent the recurrence of such attacks."

Comment: Mainstream media gets slammed for not reporting pro-gov't rallies in Syria's East Ghouta