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Russian Defense Ministry says 5 warlords responsible for attack on Russian military police in September killed in Syria

Russian fighter jet
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation / Sputnik
Five prominent Al-Nusra Front field commanders, who led an attack on Russian military police officers in Hama province earlier in September, have been killed in an airstrike in Idlib province in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The airstrike targeted the commanders of Tahrir al-Sham, a group that was formed after the collapse of Al-Nusra Front terrorist organization, near the city of Idlib, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Also, 32 militants were killed in the strike.

The attack on the Russian military police took place in Hama province, 80km from Idlib, on September 18, Konashenkov said.

Propaganda

WaPo forced to correct fake Russiagate story about Obama and Facebook

zuckerberg obama
© Reuters
The Washington Post has made a correction to an explosive cover story that undermines the entire premise of Monday's front-page article headlined, "Obama sought to prod Facebook on Russia role."

The problem, according to a Facebook executive, is that when Obama reached out to the social media giant in 2016 to discuss political disinformation spreading on the site, he didn't actually call out Russia - essentially making the Post's headline misleading and inaccurate. Or, as President Trump would call it, "fake news."

As first reported by Axios, the Post added significant information to the digital version of the story with the disclaimer, "This story has been updated with an additional response from Facebook." The response from Facebook that didn't make the paper's print edition is vital and changed the story enough that the word "Russia" was removed from the updated headline.

The story detailed how then-President Obama gave Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a "wake-up call" regarding fake news spreading on his social media platform. After reporting that Obama "made a personal appeal to Zuckerberg to take the threat of fake news and political disinformation seriously," the paper has added that Obama "did not single out Russia specifically."

Rocket

Rocket attack on Kabul International Airport claimed to be targeting Mattis

Mattis
© bankrate.comUS Secretary of Defense James Mattis
Rockets landed in and around Kabul International Airport shortly after US Secretary of Defense James Mattis arrived. The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said that Mattis was the target. ISIS has now also claimed the attack.

Rockets landed near the airport this morning. No casualties reported," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish tweeted on Wednesday.

There have been no reports of casualties and Mattis was not near the airport when the rockets hit, Reuters reports.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack on the airport, saying that Mattis was the target, Afghan TOLO news channel reported. Shortly afterwards, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) claimed that their rockets targeted the airport, Reuters reports, citing jihadist Amaq news agency. According to Amaq, IS terrorists used SPG-9 rockets and mortars for the assault.

Comment: Sounds like a page in the US military playbook: despite (false) claims, ineffective upon execution.


Arrow Up

US outpaces all nations in violating international law

eagle
© David Foldvari
The United States has repeatedly disregarded the UN Charter since its founding, leading to the superpower's increasing isolation in global affairs.

In the Western mainstream North Korea is continually classified as a "rogue nation", a "reclusive state" or, best of all, "the nuclear state". The sense of irony has been lost entirely it seems. Such titles are more applicable to the United States and its right-hand man in the Middle East, Israel. It is conveniently forgotten that the US possesses the largest nuclear weapons arsenal of all.

North Korea is continuing to pose a real dilemma for the US, in what is one of the greatest energy producing regions on earth. Donald Trump's threat to "totally destroy North Korea", in his inaugural UN speech, reportedly drew gasps from the audience. Few pointed out, however, that the US President neglected to put the word "again" at the end of his sentence.

A little over two generations ago, the US completely destroyed North Korea (1950-53) in what was "one of the deadliest wars in modern history". Much of the destruction was inflicted upon the North, and was so severe that it even "shocked and disgusted the American military personnel who witnessed it".

General Douglas MacArthur served as the US Army's Chief of Staff during the 1930s - he was a five-star general and Medal of Honour recipient. Of the Korean War McArthur said,
"I shrink - I shrink with a horror that I cannot express in words at this continuous slaughter of men in Korea. The war in Korea has already almost destroyed that nation of 20 million people. I have never seen such devastation".
MacArthur continues,
"I have seen, I guess, as much blood and disaster as any living man, and it just curdled my stomach the last time I was there [in Korea]. After I looked at the wreckage and those thousands of women and children and everything, I vomited... If you go on indefinitely, you are perpetuating a slaughter such as I have never heard of in the history of mankind".

Comment: Millions have perished. There is no justification, by any nation, worthy of this price.


Rocket

Pentagon: It's a 'matter of a very short time' until N. Korea has capability to send nuke to US

General Dunford
© Andrew Harrer/Global Look PressGeneral Joseph Dunford
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford told Congress that the US should assume that North Korea already has the capability to attack the US with a nuclear weapon, and plan accordingly. It is the US military's judgement that it is a matter of a "very short time" before North Korea is able to attack the US, Dunford told Senators of the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

"We should assume now that they have the capability," although there are still some technical details that the North is working on, he said, adding that Pyongyang has already demonstrated the willingness to use the weapon.

An additional 21 missile interceptors are being deployed to counter the threat from North Korea, as well as "other threats," on top of 44 already in place, Dunford told Congress.

Before carrying out a preemptive attack against North Korea, the general said he would want to have the "full-throated support" of the American people, including Congress.


Comment: Would want to? Meaning he could do it without notification.


The US has also recently increased intelligence collection from North Korea, according to the army chief.

Despite an escalation in rhetoric between the United States and North Korea, Dunford said he has not seen Pyongyang change its military posture. "While the political space is clearly very charged right now, we haven't seen a change in the posture of North Korean forces and we watch that very closely."


Comment: This situation has become a venting war. Russia and China's call for a 'double-freeze' remains the voice of sanity.


Padlock

US sanctions announced for 8 North Korean banks, 26 individuals

NKflagsanctions
© newindianexpress.com
The Trump administration has announced sanctions against eight North Korean banks and 26 individuals, who the US says act as the banks' representatives in various countries, including China, Russia, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.

"As a result of today's action, any property or interests in property of the designated persons in the possession or control of US persons or within the US must be blocked," Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement Tuesday. "This further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean peninsula," he added.

19 of the North Korean nationals targeted by the sanctions work in China, while three represent various North Korean banks in Russia, according to the Treasury. The sanctions follow US President Donald Trump's executive order, signed last week, targeting North Korea's access to the international banking system.

The UN Security Council had already passed a series of tough economic sanctions against Pyongyang following its repeated testing of ballistic missiles and, reportedly, also of a hydrogen bomb. The UN sanctions targeted shipments of oil and other fuel used in missile testing as well as government assets and leaders.

The most recent UN resolution also banned all textile exports from the North and prohibited any country from authorizing new work permits for North Korean workers - two key sources of hard currency for the country.

However, having approved the sanctions, two permanent members of the UNSC - Russia and China - insisted on the US scaling down its belligerent rhetoric toward the North and to pursue negotiations.

Chess

Syria claims it is prepared to discuss post-war autonomy with Kurds, a geo-strategic blow to US, Israel

Walid Muallem
© syrianfreepress.wordpress.comSyrian Deputy PM and FM Walid Muallem
Syria's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has stated that once the conflict against terrorist groups is finished in Syria, Damascus will be willing to politically negotiate internal autonomy for Syrian Kurds.

Reuters quotes Muallem, who delivered Syria's address to the United Nations, as stating,
"This topic (Kurdish autonomy) is open to negotiation and discussion and when we are done eliminating Daesh (aka ISIS), we can sit with our Kurdish sons and reach an understanding on a formula for the future".
There are several geo-political implications to this statement.

1. Seizing the initiative from the US occupiers

First and foremost, Muallem's proposals take the wind out of the sails of the United States. As I wrote previously in The Duran, with Syria and Russia quickly securing control over areas east of the River Euphrates, the US is being squeezed out of Syria.

Comment: USA: Time to put the boots in the duffle and go home.


Alarm Clock

Poroshenko signs controversial language bill into law: All schools must now teach only Ukrainian - UPDATE

ukrainian students
© UNIANThe wording of the Ukrainian legislation states that the language of instruction in the first four grades may be in a minority language. By grade five, however, only two or more subjects can be taught in any of the languages of the EU.
Ukraine's president has signed into law a controversial bill that makes Ukrainian the required language of study in state schools from the fifth grade on.

Petro Poroshenko signed the measure on September 25 after days of criticism, particularly from Ukraine's ethnic minorities.

The bill does not outlaw instruction in other languages; students can still learn their native languages as a separate subject.

But that hasn't assuaged the fears of groups such as Poles, Romanians, and Hungarians, all of which have sizable ethnic communities in Ukraine.

Russia has been particularly vociferous in its criticism, with the Foreign Ministry asserted this month that the law was designed to "forcefully establish a mono-ethnic language regime in a multinational state."

Comment: Even CIA-friendly RFE/RL is reporting on the law with some degree of criticism, which is rare for them. (Russia = bad, Ukraine = good.) From another report 2 days ago:
Leshko is not a fan of the bill, which would roll back the option for lessons to be taught in other languages.

"I don't like it. Why? Because, for example, I am a Hungarian. I was studying in a Hungarian school and I want my children also to speak Hungarian," she explained. "Maybe they will move to Hungary or maybe they will go there to earn money. In that case, the Hungarian language will be more useful than Ukrainian, I think."

Leshko is not alone in her animosity toward the legislation. Officials from Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Russia -- all countries with significant ethnic communities in Ukraine -- have all heaped vitriol on it.

...Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Ukraine "stabbed Hungary in the back" with the law.
We understand that this law is primarily directed against the Russian language, because it dominates the capital, the eastern regions. But in Transcarpathia, it hits the national minorities."-- Yaroslav Halas, spokesman for Zakarpattia Oblast governor
...
There are more than 15,000 schools across Ukraine. Of these, according to data from the Ukrainian Education Ministry, Russian is used as the primary language in 581; Romanian in 75; Hungarian in 71; and Polish in five. Some 400,000 students are enrolled at these minority-language schools.

Ethnic Russians make up 17 percent of Ukraine's population of 45 million, according to the World Population Review. Other minorities, including Hungarians, Poles, and Romanians, each make up less than 1 percent of the population.
...
Hennadiy Moskal, the governor of Zakarpattia Oblast, an area in western Ukraine with a sizable Hungarian community, has been one of the more vocal critics of the legislation, claiming it contravenes the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
If private individuals in Ukraine, or [Zakarpattia] Governor [Hennadiy] Moskal, want, they can establish a private Hungarian school and fund it."-- Former Justice Minister Serhiy Holovatyy
Yaroslav Halas, a spokesman for Moskal, expressed what some critics suspect may be the target of the bill.

"We understand that this law is primarily directed against the Russian language, because it dominates the capital, the eastern regions. But in Transcarpathia, it hits the national minorities," he told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

"This law is aimed at protecting the Ukrainian language, but mostly against Russian. It is not aimed at protecting the 150,000 Hungarians or several tens of thousands of Romanians who also live in the Chernivtsi region, or the Odesa region, where Moldovans and Gagauzians live," Halas said.
Hungary's FM released a statement in response:
"Hungary will block all steps within the European Union that would represent a step forward in Ukraine's European integration process in the spirit of the Eastern Partnership program," Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement on Tuesday.
...
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin responded to Hungary's concerns by calling the whole issue a mere "misunderstanding" and offered assurances that Ukraine does care about its citizens of Hungarian origin.

"The meaningful dialog is the way to clear up misunderstandings," Klimkin tweeted, adding that "Ukraine does everything to make our citizens of Hungarian origin feel as comfortable as possible both in the EU and in Ukraine."
Good luck back-peddling on this one, Klimkin!

Update (Sept. 27): The Russian State Duma issued a statement in response:
"The Ukrainian law on education introduces a de-facto ban on getting an education in any language except Ukrainian. It is not a coincidence that the new law has no mention of Russian or other languages used by the peoples of Ukraine. Apart from the official language - Ukrainian - the law only has some regulations concerning teaching in English," according to the text of the statement published on the parliament's website.

The new law constitutes an act of forced Ukrainization that bluntly violates the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which was ratified by Ukraine, the State Duma lawmakers wrote.
...
"The so called education reform in Ukraine is targeting primarily the destruction of the remains of Russian-language education with the full assimilation of Russian speakers being the main objectives," the statement reads.

"As they maintain the previous line in the language issue, the Ukrainian authorities again provoke the same situation and recreate the same reasons that had become a starting point for the development of the conflict and the civil war in southeastern Ukraine."



Airplane

U.S. set to curb Open Skies treaty with Russia, Russians say stick to the deal - UPDATE

Russian Tu-214 ON
© Maksim Blinov / SputnikA Russian Tu-214 ON (Open Skies) reconnaissance aircraft designed
The US may scrap a transparency deal with Russia, believing that Moscow is not in compliance with its terms, General Dunford said. Moscow suggested that the Open Skies treaty must be strictly observed by all members.

On Tuesday, the US could announce that it will curb Russian observation flights over American territory under the treaty, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier. The announcement is expected during the meeting of the Open Skies consultative commission in Vienna, the newspaper said. Russian officials said they were aware of the imminent restrictions.

According to the WSJ, the US military see a diminishing value of the treaty, which was negotiated in the early 1990s and came into force in 2002, due to advances of satellite imaging technology.

The treaty allows member states to schedule observation flights over each other's territory to monitor military deployments and is part of a crumbling framework for building trust between Russia and NATO members.

Comment: The Americans have proven themselves time and time again incapable of keeping their promises or abiding by their agreements. They are unreliable and unprofessional. No wonder their empire is crumbling and most of the world despises them.

Update (Sept. 27): Russia's response:
Washington's reported intention to restrict observation flights over the US is yet another example of its tactics to pressure other nations rather than seeking compromise, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

"Obviously, that is not a partnership move. We don't see this treaty as giving any unilateral advantage to any party. The treaty benefits all parties. It's a necessary valuable document, which should be preserved, but the United States is again demonstrating that it prefers the path of pressure," he said.
...
Ryabkov also stated that any restrictive measures taken by the US against Russia would lead to retaliation.

"Before delivering any statements on the issue we will have to analyze the situation together with our military and decide on what form our response to the Americans will take," he said. "But there will be a response, I have no doubt about it."

Earlier on Tuesday, Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's non-proliferation and arms controls department, suggested that the WSJ publication was likely the result of a deliberate leak from the US government.

"This is strange that even before such moves are formalized, the information gets into the press. This is the signature style of the US diplomacy, which sees no distinction between 'megaphone diplomacy' and real politics," he said.



No Entry

Facebook censorship now being spearheaded by the New York Times and the Democrats

facebook censorship
Facebook, the technology giant that controls the world's largest social network, has announced that it will voluntarily turn over information on political advertisements allegedly tied to fake accounts operating out of Russia to the congressional committee investigating Russian "meddling" in the 2016 election.

Those user accounts, according to the New York Times, "promoted inflammatory messages on divisive issues" during the 2016 election. These "inflammatory" messages included, according to the Times, links to articles critical of US foreign policy.

The move by Facebook is a response to a narrative concocted by US intelligence agencies, New York Times "investigations," and officials such as Mark Warner, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, that the Russian government sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 election by buying about $100,000 in political advertisements.

Comment: See also: