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Egypt: 305 dead, scores injured in bomb & gun attack at northern Sinai mosque (GRAPHIC PHOTOS)


RT
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 14:59 UTC
Bir al-Abed attack mosque
A scene inside the mosque that was attacked
Egyptian state TV has confirmed 200 people have been killed in a coordinated bomb and gun attack in northern Sinai. Some 130 others were injured.

The explosion took place in the vicinity of a mosque during Friday prayer and was accompanied by an armed attack carried out by suspected militants, Reuters reports, citing eyewitnesses and security sources.

State media showed images of bloodied victims and bodies covered in blankets inside the Al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed, west of the city of El Arish. Those fleeing the mosque were then reportedly attacked by gunmen.

Comment: That's the problem with large scale state funding of terrorist organisations as proxy armies, there's always the clear and present danger that they will start to believe they're a real army and start taking measures on their own initiative. Not that this terrible event in Egypt today is necessarily a 'genuine' terror attack - it could easily be yet another 'destabilization' effort by Western powers, Israel and their Gulf royalty allies - but the idea of Western-backed terror groups 'gone rogue' is always a possibility.

Update: The death toll is now at least 235. State TV says that 5 attackers were involved:
Following the attack, el-Sisi vowed to "vigorously" respond to the actions of the terrorists. "It is a cowardly attack that aims to destabilize the [Egyptian] unity, spread bitterness, and make us doubt our abilities," he said, addressing the nation. "However, this attack will do nothing but make us stronger and more persistent to combat terrorism," the president added.

A major campaign, 'Operation Revenge of the Martyrs,' has been launched following the attacks, the news outlet reported. Egyptian security forces then allegedly killed 15 extremists involved in the mosque attack in a drone strike in the Al-Risha desert, not far from Bir al-Abed where the attack took place, Sky News Arabia reports citing security sources.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent condolences to the Egyptian president, describing Friday's attack as cruel and cynical. "The murder of civilians in the course of a religious service is striking with its cruelty and cynicism. We are once again convinced that the notion of human morality is absolutely alien to terrorists," Putin said in a channel on the messaging app Telegram.

US President Donald Trump described the attack as "cowardly," while stressing that the world must defeat terrorists militarily.
Update (Nov. 25): The Ahram news agency reports that the Egyptian public prosecutor's office has confirmed that the toll has now risen to 305, and that the mosque attackers were carrying ISIS flags:
The militants arrived at the Bir al-Abd mosque in five all-terrain vehicles, took up positions at the mosque's door and 12 windows and started firing on worshippers inside, Egypt's chief prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said in a statement Saturday. They are also said to have set fire to seven cars parked outside the mosque.

People ran for their lives after the gunmen detonated a bomb at Al-Rawdah mosque at the end of Friday prayers. They then opened fire on those fleeing and ambulances that arrived at the scene.

According to the Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, the prosecutor has been hearing witnesses who confirmed that some of the attackers were masked, while all were dressed in military-style clothes. One of the perpetrators was reportedly carrying a black flag, saying "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for what is believed to be the worst attack in Egypt's recent history. The country's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed "the military and the police will take revenge," saying the attack has only prompted Cairo to step up its efforts in targeting terrorism.


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Brick Wall

Open-air prison: The impossibility of leaving Gaza

Muhammad Shehada
Middle East Eye
Thu, 23 Nov 2017 16:58 UTC
Gaza, Rafah border crossing
After three days of an exceptional opening of Gaza's only gate to the outside world, the Rafah border crossing, Palestinians are - again - locked up behind the giant concrete walls of the blockade; their only way out is paying the unaffordable bribe for the "coordinated passage".

Throughout 2017, the Rafah border crossing has opened for about 16 days in total. The ongoing Israeli blockade, in full cooperation with Egypt, enters its 11th year.

It is time that Gaza has its own port to the world again.

Comment: The hell that is Gaza: Rampant sexual abuse, drugs and despair

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X

What is left in Syria for the US except to admit its crime and face its punishment

David Macilwain
Russia Insider
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
USFLAG
© Salon
As Russia mediates the terms of settlement, the Western alliance of aggressors should not think they can just skulk away with their weapons, like their Da'esh proxies did from Raqqa. They must admit guilt, and face appropriate punishment for this crime of the century.

Now the day of reckoning has arrived, marked by the meeting of Presidents Bashar al Assad and Vladimir Putin in Sochi. Their conference was also a meeting of militaries, whose cooperation and success on the battlefield against Western-backed terrorists has brought us to this point. So we need to be clear about what happened, and what did not happen.

Syria has been under siege for six and a half years - longer than the siege of France in WW2 - to which the siege of Syria bears some superficial similarities. Such analogies can be misleading - France was under "collaborative occupation" by Germany, while Syria's situation more resembles that of France in World War One - the similarities are rather in the question of guilt.

Comment: The US and cohorts should not expect anything better in return than they gave out.

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Light Saber

'We have been dreaming about this visit for a long time': Sudanese President visits Russia, seeks 'protection from US aggression'

Peter Korzun
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 25 Nov 2017 19:12 UTC
President Omar al-Bashir and Putin
"We have been dreaming about this visit for a long time," said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir as he was being greeted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Nov.23 at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. "We are thankful to Russia for its position in the international arena, including Russia's position on the protection of Sudan," he added. This is the first time the Sudanese leader visited Russia - the country he pins great hopes on.

The agenda included economic and military cooperation. The Sudanese leader said he had discussed modernization of the Sudanese military with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu before meeting President Putin. "We agreed with the defense minister that Russia will offer assistance in that," he informed. The sides agreed to increase the size of defense attaché staffs.

Comment: See also:

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Briefcase

FusionGPS, firm behind Trump-Russia dossier, paid several journalists for work - hid transactions from House investigators

Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
fusiongps
© unknown
Fusion GPS, the liberal research firm that funded and distributed the anti-Trump dossier, has paid three journalists for work related to Congress' Russia probe, according to court filings.

Lawyers representing the House Intelligence Committee made the assertion in a bid to force Fusion to turn over additional bank transactions involving reporters, law firms and a media company. "The committee seeks transactions related to three individual journalists," stated the House general counsel court filing, "each of whom have reported on and/or been quoted in articles regarding topics related to the committee's investigation."

The journalists' names are blacked out. Documents list 10 House-demanded bank transactions from Fusion, or its conduits, to journalists.

Fusion's two law firms, Cunningham Levy Muse and Zuckerman Spaeder and Cunningham, are asking a U.S. District Court judge to block access.

The court battle unfolded this way:

Comment: As the breadth of the plot expands, the layers are unraveling.

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Smoking

Health experts urge Australian governments to sue tobacco companies for smoking-related illnesses


AAP-SBS Wires
Mon, 20 Nov 2017 00:00 UTC
smoking
© NPR
Australia's state and federal governments are being urged to follow in Canada's footsteps and sue tobacco companies so they can claw back billions of dollars spent treating smoking-related illnesses.

Health experts say while Australia led the world in introducing plain-packaging for tobacco products, smoking remains the country's leading preventable cause of death and disease, with estimated annual costs of at least $31.5 billion.

They want governments to keep up the pressure on tobacco companies and consider taking legal action action to help recover some of those costs.

"Legal action would clearly pose substantial challenges, but the potential benefits of holding tobacco companies to account through litigation mean that it could play an important role in future Australian tobacco control strategies," the experts wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday.

"Successful litigation could reduce its financial capacity to engage in future activities and undermine any remaining credibility it may have in the policy arena."

Comment: Illnesses blamed on smoking are not the real issue. It is about money and control.

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Handcuffs

Turkish media head arrested for alleged links to Russian envoy murder


Sputik
Sat, 25 Nov 2017 12:33 UTC
Hayreddin Aydinbas
© AP Photo/ Burhan Ozbilici/YouTubeHayreddin Aydinbas
The arrest comes nearly a year after the assassination of former Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov. Guru Media Broadcast Group Chairman Hayreddin Aydinbas, who had been detained earlier this week for alleged links to Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement, referred to as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), was remanded into custody on Friday over alleged links to the murder of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in December 2016, the Anadolu news agency reported citing a judicial source.

Following the interrogation by a prosecutor from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, he had been taken into custody in line with the decision of a criminal court, the agency said. Aydinbas confessed that he had links to FETO, but claimed that had broken away from the organization back in 2008.

According to Turkish media, Hayreddin Aydinbas also acted as a director general for "Eurasian House" organization that held a conference on Russia-Turkish economic relations in 2016 in Moscow, attended by Turkish Ambassador to Russia Huseyin Dirioz.

Andrei Karlov was shot by an off-duty Turkish police officer named Mevlut Mert Altintas at the opening of an art gallery exhibition in Ankara on December 19, 2016, with three people being injured in the shooting, and the gunman being killed at the scene by law enforcement. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated it considered the attack a terrorist attack.

Following the assassination, a chief advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the crime was affiliated with the Gulen movement.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Trump admin reverses decision to close PLO's DC office


Press TV
Sat, 25 Nov 2017 02:54 UTC
PLO offices
© APThe Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office, Washington, DC.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has backtracked on a decision to shutter the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington, DC, after facing heavy backlash.

Last week, US State Department officials said the PLO couldn't stay open because of its support for a Palestinian bid to prosecute Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez said Friday that the US had "advised the PLO office to limit its activities to those related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians."

Instead, he said, the State Department would put some limitations on the office that it expected would be lifted after 90 days. "We therefore are optimistic that at the end of this 90-day period, the political process may be sufficiently advanced that the president will be in a position to allow the PLO office to resume full operations," Vasquez said.

According to a law passed by the US Congress, Palestinians would be stripped of the right to have a mission in the US capital if they support an ICC investigation of Israelis for committing crimes against them.

Comment: See also: Palestinian Authority freezes contact with US over PLO office shutdown

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Jet5

Norway's new F-35s caught sending 'sensitive data' to US


RT
Sat, 25 Nov 2017 11:49 UTC
F-35s
© Norsk Telegrambyra AS / ReutersThe first three F-35 fighter jets ordered by Norway's Air Force arrive in Oerland Main Air Station, near Trondheim, Norway.
Norway's new F-35 fighter jets boast an impressive array of high-tech gadgetry, but Norwegian defense officials were surprised to learn of one unadvertised feature: the pricey plane relays sensitive data back to its US manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.

The Royal Norwegian Air Force recently received the first three of the 40 F-35 fighter jets it ordered from Lockheed Martin. Major General Morten Klevar, the director of Norway's F-35 program, has described the fabled fighter jet as "crucial to the continued modernization of our armed forces and our ability to preserve Norwegian and allied security and interests."

But while pouring billions of dollars into the troubled jet, the Scandinavian nation may have got more than it bargained for.

Norway is the first foreign country to acquire the F-35 mission data file from the US Air Force's (USAF) 53rd Electronic Warfare Group's Partner Support Complex - software which allows the aircraft to perform its primary missions and provides the pilot with "an extraordinary situational awareness". But Norwegian defense officials soon discovered that their fancy fleet of F-35s also automatically transmit sensitive data to Lockheed Martin's servers in Fort Worth, Texas, after each flight.

Comment: The devil is in the details.

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Footprints

Report: Pentagon admits 2,000 US troops in Syria


RT
Sat, 25 Nov 2017 03:06 UTC
SoldiersFlag
© The Real Agenda
The Pentagon may finally reveal the true number of its troops present on the ground in Syria, officials have told Reuters. Presently, the official number stands at around 500 servicemen, but the actual figure reportedly hovers around 2,000 troops.

The US Defense Department plans to announce as early as Monday that around 2,000 US troops are currently deployed in Syria, two American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Friday.

The United States has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the number of troops and "military advisers" it has fighting alongside the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria. During Barack Obama's presidency, the US military routinely announced foreign troop deployments, but the Trump administration stopped disclosing such information about Operation Inherent Resolve. The policy was reversed in the spring, to keep up the "element of surprise" against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists in both Syria and Iraq.

"In order to maintain tactical surprise, ensure operational security and force protection, the coalition will not routinely announce or confirm information about the capabilities, force numbers, locations, or movement of forces in or out of Iraq and Syria," said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon at the time.

Comment: Full of excuses, the US is not going to leave as long as there is a reconstruction buck to be made in Syria and another handy occupation location in the ME. Russia may have other ideas for the US.

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