Puppet MastersS


Footprints

Trump to likely upgrade Syria strategy with more troop deployments

Salman Rafi Sheikh
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
D Trump and message
© AZ QuotesWhat happened to this guy?
The Trump administration is likely to increase the number of its military force in Syria. According to reports appearing in the Western media, induction of fresh troops will take the number of deployed troops to 1,000. In addition to it, the US is also going to station 2,500 troops in Kuwait, likely to be deployed in Syria if and when needed. Recent comments from the US officials suggest that it is contemplating a deployment in Syria that extends far beyond the defeat of IS and includes a long-term presence to ward off Syria's allies, Russia and Iran, from having strong establishment. In his testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 9, Joseph Votel, who leads the US CENTCOM commander, said additional forces may be needed in the future to help with "stability and other aspects of the operations."

There are multiple "other aspects" involved that necessitate deployment of fresh troops. The US has already demanded that Iran's own and Iran-backed forces be removed from the Syrian territory in order to achieve a "political solution" of the crisis. While it is interesting to see the US demanding the exit of a force that has duly resisted and defeated IS, the demand stems actually from the fear, which both the US and Israel share, of Iran establishing permanent or long term military presence in Syria and thus use the territory to launch offensive against Israel by opening a new front in the Golan heights. Hence, deployment of US forces to thwart what it perceives to be a part of Iran's "regional ambitions."

In order to further decrease Iran's role in Syria, the US plan for Syria also includes deployment of troops by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan, countries which have all but lost any role in the on-going war due to the extremely dilapidated situation their proxy militias have been put into due to successful Russian and Syrian operations.

Comment: If this comes to pass, it leaves no apparent option for the US and Russia to unite against ISIS. And, Russia will not give up Iran. Projections, as to this line of reasoning and outcome, have to be weighed with a trajectory back into a self-serving US quagmire and a doubling down on the negative global perception of the US/NATO's internationally criminal interference. Forty years, Mr. Trump? Good guess.

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USA

Amerika unleashed? Pentagon enjoying greater latitude under Trump


Yahoo News
Sun, 26 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
US convoy
© AFP/Delil SouleimanConvoy of US armored vehicles on western outskirts of Manbij, Syria.
The Pentagonunder President Donald Trump is enjoying greater freedom to run its wars the way it wants -- and not constantly seek White House approval on important decisions. Many in the military appreciate this increased autonomy, but critics charge it is raising civilian death rates, puts the lives of US troops at greater risk and leads to a lack of oversight of America's conflicts. Nowhere has the shift been more visible than in the fight against the Islamic State group in northern Syria, where under Barack Obama even minor tweaks to US plans underwent exhaustive White House scrutiny.

Since Trump's inauguration, the Marine Corps has brought an artillery battery into Syria, and the Army has moved in hundreds of Rangers, bringing the total number of US forces there to almost 1,000. Commanders are weighing the possibility of deploying hundreds more, and the Pentagon this week announced it had provided artillery support and choppered local forces behind enemy lines in a bid to seize a strategic dam.

The greater leeway marks a departure for the National Security Council (NSC), which coordinates foreign and military policy and implements the president's national security agenda. Under Obama, the NSC oversaw just about every aspect of America's wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, with then Pentagon chief Ash Carter was kept on a short leash.

Comment: That's the US military's cardinal rule?? They have turned much of the planet into a free-fire zone by 'not turning the planet into a free-fire zone'. From a handful of terrorist cells in 2001, there are now hundreds of thousands of terrorists all over the Middle East and beyond. From a trio of 'evil states' in 2001, there are now over a dozen failed states. The US is constantly making more enemies! In other words, their declared intentions produce directly opposite results. Which is a consequence of being ruled by psychopaths.

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Ambulance

US media's new darling is a delusional conspiracy-theorist who wants to bomb Russia

Nathan J. Robinson and Alex Nichols
Russia Insider
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:19 UTC
Louise Mensch crazy
For some time, certain critics have been suggesting that the mainstream press gives a little too much credence to dubious conspiracy theories about Russia, theories which many Democrats have embraced out of their desire to undermine Donald Trump. Liberal commentators like Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann are beginning to sound a bit like Glenn Beck during the peak of the chalkboard-years. Any claim about nefarious doings by Vladimir Putin—for instance, that Russia hacked Vermont's electric grid, or that the Naked Capitalism blog is Russian state propaganda—is spread widely by pundits without particular regard for the actual substantiating evidence.

Of course, one may disagree with this. One may believe that the media's treatment of the Russia-Trump nexus has been sober and reasonable. But a new data point suggests otherwise: the New York Times recently published a piece on Russian hacking by Louise Mensch. And a world where the Paper of Record publishes Mensch is not a world with a sane public conversation about Russia.

Mensch is a British former Conservative MP and chick-lit author who these days spends most of her time on Twitter issuing frenzied denunciations of imagined armies of online "Putinbots." She is—and this is no overstatement—one of the least credible people on the internet.

Comment: Years ago, people with these kinds of delusions would be sent to a mental institution to get the help they need. Now they're given the spotlight from mainstream media outlets. The inmates really are running the asylum.

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Map

'Largest discovery' of oil off Scottish coast could raise chances of independence


RT
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 17:30 UTC
oil platform
© Darrin Zammit Lupi / Reuters
An oil exploration company has hailed the "largest undeveloped discovery" of oil in UK waters, to the west of Shetland in Scotland. The find could influence the outcome of a second Scottish independence referendum.

Hurricane Energy said the discovery, from which an estimated 1 billion barrels could be extracted, is significantly larger than the average findings of 25 million barrels in recent years.
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Chess

Trump to name son-in-law to White House 'SWAT team'


RT
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 17:20 UTC
Ivanka_kushner
© Jim Bourg / ReutersIvanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner
President Donald Trump will appoint his son-in-law Jared Kushner to head a White House office focused on making government run more efficiently. The news comes as Kushner agreed to testify before the Senate on alleged Trump "ties with Russia."

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, will head the new White House Office of American Innovation. Trump and Kushner previewed the appointment on Sunday to the Washington Post, an outlet usually hostile to the current administration.

"All Americans, regardless of their political views, can recognize that government stagnation has hindered our ability to properly function, often creating widespread congestion and leading to cost overruns and delays," Trump said in a statement to the Post. "I promised the American people I would produce results, and apply my 'ahead of schedule, under budget' mentality to the government."
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Stop

At least 112 bodies found at site of US-led coalition's airstrike in Iraqi Mosul


Sputnik
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:28 UTC
Mosul destroyed building
© AP Photo/ Felipe Dana
At least 112 bodies have been retrieved from the site of a March 17 airstrike by the US-led coalition in western Mosul, US media reported Monday, citing a senior Iraqi health official Ahmed Dubardani.

The bodies, which had been pulled over the past three days, were buried at al-Mamoun cemetery in western Mosul, the CNN broadcaster reported.


Comment: Where's the outcry at massive death toll from US bombing in Mosul?

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Stop

SDF temporarily stops advance on Syria's Raqqa to allow repairs at Tabqa Dam


Sputnik
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 18:52 UTC
SDF members
© AFP 2017/ DELIL SOULEIMANMembers of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), made up of an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters, stand under an Islamic State (IS)group banner in the recently recaptured town of Al-Karamah, 26 kms from the IS bastion of Raqqa, as they advance encircle the jihadists, on March 26, 2017
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Monday a temporary pause in its advance on the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh, outlawed in Russia) terrorist group's stronghold of Raqqa due to the need to repair the damaged Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates.

On Sunday, local media reported that the dam partially collapsed as result of the fighting between the SDF and the Daesh. The SDF refuted the information that the dam had collapsed but said the US-led international coalition had conducted numerous strikes against the Daesh in the area.


Comment: Syria's biggest dam partially collapses as clashes erupt near Raqqa


"In order to protect the dam on the Euphrates... and at the request of the dam authority, we have decided to stop the operation in the region of the dam for four hours. This is being done to allow an engineer team to pass through and work on the dam," the SDF press service said on its website.

Fighting is ceasing between 12:00 and 17:00 GMT, according to the statement.

Comment: The Tabqa dam that lies on the Euphrates River upstream from the Syrian city of Raqqa remains structurally intact, as claimed earlier by anti-government forces advancing on the city about 25 miles to the south, US Central Command announced in a Twitter message on Monday.
"The Coalition is taking every precaution to ensure the integrity of Tabqa Dam, the tweet stated. "To our knowledge, the dam has not been structurally damaged."
The US-led coalition in Syria and Iraq carried out 34 strikes consisting of 80 engagements against the Daesh on Sunday, including seven strikes near Tabqa, Operation Inherent Resolve said in a press release.
"Near Tabqah, seven strikes engaged three Daesh tactical units; destroyed two vehicles, a fighting position, and a front-end loader; and damaged two supply routes," the release stated on Monday.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday refuted media reports about the Tabqa Dam partly collapsing in result of airstrikes or shelling.
"We are very careful in order for the Euphrates Dam to not be damaged during the operation to liberate it [from the terrorists of the Islamic State (Daesh)]. However, the international coalition's air force conducts massive strikes against the IS units around Tabqa in order to secure the dam," official spokesman of the SDF said in a statement obtained by Sputnik.
The armed units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pushed Sunday the militants of the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group out of the military airport, located near the Syrian city of Tabqa, Lebanese Al Mayadeen broadcaster reported, citing its source.
Earlier in the day, the media said the SDF forces planned to seize the city of Tabqa, which is the last big Daesh stronghold on the way to Raqqa, serving as Daesh's de facto capital in Syria since it was captured in 2013.
See also: US forces block Syrian Army advance in preparation for Syria's 'balkanization'

Update (Mar. 28):

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Bad Guys

Reality check: Ukrainian FM admits that West sees Ukraine as 'waste material'


Sputnik
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:20 UTC
Ukraine neo Nazi Kiev maidan
© SPUTNIK/ ANDREI STENINSupporters of Ukraine’s European integration in Madan square in Kiev, Ukraine
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has admitted that Ukraine's allies aren't ready to fight for Kiev. Commenting on the admission, political scientist Grigory Trofimchuk told Sputnik that Kiev is just coming to realize the obvious: that while Kiev officials see the West as their allies, the EU and the US see Ukraine only as 'waste material'.

In a recent interview for Ukrainian pro-government online news resource Liga.net, Foreign Minister Klimkin bluntly admitted that Kiev's closest allies weren't going to fight for Ukrainian territory against what he called 'Russian aggression'. Klimkin blamed the prevailing circumstances for the current state of affairs, but noted that he was optimistic that this may change in the future. "I'm not saying that this cannot change tomorrow or the day after that," he said.

At the same time, the foreign minister emphasized that he believes Kiev is "inescapably moving" toward a "format in which our country will be an element in the logic of NATO's eastern flank." This is "inevitable," according to Klimkin.
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Caesar

If West wants 'Maidan' in Moscow they are bound to be disappointed

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:21 UTC
Navalny
© Evgenya Novozhenina / SputnikLawyer and politician Alexei Navalny
Russian authorities support police handling of unsanctioned protest whilst organisers confirm accuracy of police estimate of numbers.

Alexey Navalny, the organiser of yesterday's unsanctioned protest in Moscow, and the person who called the protests elsewhere in Russia, has now been convicted by a Moscow court of organising an unsanctioned protest and has been ordered to pay a $350 fine.

This is part of the regular circus between the Russian authorities and Navalny. He pretends to be persecuted, and they pretend to punish him. In reality, though he now has two convictions for serious embezzlement as well as multiple public order offences - some minor, some less so - he remains free and continues exactly as before, with the authorities doing nothing to enforce the various sentences the Russian courts have imposed on him.

Comment: Further reading: Navalny's 'cheap publicity stunt' only proves how popular Putin really is

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Pirates

Yale University 'educated' Russian color revolution agitator tool Alexey Navalny

Fort Russ
Ilia Belous & Inessa Sinchougova
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
Alexey Navalny
Alexey Navalny's campaign offices across Russia have called on the citizens to attend unsanctioned protests against Russia's Government. Peaceful protests, in Russia, require a permit from the cities' authorities to be able to account for any disruption. If no permit has been obtained, then the civil action is illegal.

Irrespective of this, over the past couple of days - protesters have gathered in Moscow, Ekaterinbug, Novosibirsk and other regional centers.

Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree...

Navalny has obtained special training as part of his Yale University education, equipped to organise and carry out such operations with guaranteed funding. The civil unrest taking place throughout the country contains all the classic criteria of an "orange", "velvet', or "colour" revolution, which have been continually instigated by US intelligence services.

It is clear that not one "maidan" has ever resolved the problems that its respective country had - not in Yugoslavia, not in Tunisia, nor Ukraine. A 'maidan' achieves a government coup, the imposition of US-funded puppet leaders, genocide of the local population, and an overall throw back to the Middle Ages.

Comment: See also:

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