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Snakes in Suits

Trump's Bay of Pigs? White House leak reveals how staff manipulated Trump to get him to approve failed Yemen raid

Sarah K. Burris
Raw Story
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 09:40 UTC
obama_trump
© AFP Photo/Jim WatsonUS President Barack Obama (R) meets with Republican President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on November 10, 2016
The one way a White House staffer can get President Donald Trump to do what they want is by telling him that President Barack Obama would never have done it, a new report reveals.

According to the Independent, an anonymous staffer leaked that the way military leaders were able to urge Trump to act on the failed Yemen raid was by telling him Obama didn't want to do it.

General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, were reportedly able to persuade Trump to move forward by claiming Obama would never have been so bold to actually go through with it.

The military action was in the works for months prior to Trump taking over but Obama advisors didn't want to do the raid until it was a moonless night.

Still, the raid was a failure in that it killed 30 civilians, one U.S. Navy Seal and failed to meet the action's objective, which was to kill its alleged target, al Qaeda leader Qassim al Rimi.

The Independent cited an NBC News report that quoted a senior US intelligence official who claimed "almost everything went wrong" once the raid got underway. According to the official, those in the targeted house were alerted to the presence of the soldiers and they soon came under fire.

Comment: From the Independent:
Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens of SEAL Team 6 was mortally wounded and it was later revealed an eight-year-old US citizen Nawr al Awlaki, daughter of American-born al Qaeda leader Anwar al Awlaki, was also killed in the raid.

Despite the alleged failure to kill their target, who has been described as the third most wanted terrorist in the world, the Pentagon insisted that it was able to retrieve "materials and information that is yielding valuable intelligence".
So, the Pentagon feels the deaths were worth it. If true, we hope President Trump will wise up to these manipulations.

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Magic Hat

The Trump foreign policy hat: How Trump decides?

Rob Slane
TheBlogMire
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:30 UTC
trump hat policy
For those of us who saw the psychopathic Mrs Clinton as a gigantic threat to world peace, hearing Donald Trump speaking about "getting along with Russia", as opposed to wanting to go to war with it, was really rather refreshing and even cause for a faint glimmer of hope that the US might actually be about to abandon its messianic claims over the whole world and settle down to being a proper country that minds its own business.

To be fair, there were some early indications that this might actually happen. Here's the Donald at his inauguration:
"We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world — but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first."
Wow. You mean no more arm-twisting, no more so-called nation building, and finally a respect for that quaint old concept, national sovereignty? That sounds great Donald. But there was more:
"We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow."
Say what? I'm having heart palpitations now Donald. You mean you renounce your "exceptional" and "indispensable" right to impose regime change, coup d'etats, invasions and bombings on any country that doesn't play ball? Are you sure you can get that past your handlers, Donald?
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Newspaper

Assad: US-Russia cooperation could be good for Syria, and the world


RT
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 16:25 UTC
Assad
© SANA / ReutersSyria's President Bashar Assad.
Cooperation between Moscow and the new administration in Washington could be positive not just for Syria but also the wider world, Syrian President Bashar Assad said, adding that the EU has merely supported terrorists since the start of the country's civil war.

When asked by Belgian media about the Trump administration and the possibility of working with it, Assad said that statements by the Republican both during his election campaign and after are "promising regarding the priority of fighting terrorists, and mainly ISIS [IS, Islamic State]," SANA news agency reported.

"That's what we've been asking for during the last six years," he added. "So, I think this is promising, we have to wait, it's still early to expect anything practical. It could be about the cooperation between the US and Russia, that we think is going to be positive for the rest of the world, including Syria."
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Video

Video emerges of explosive object ramming Saudi frigate

Thomas Gibbons-Neff
The Washington Post
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 16:05 UTC
Houthi militia group strike a Saudi Arabian warship
© Abbas Almutwkel/YouTube
A video that shows the moment a skiff loaded with explosives rams into a Saudi warship in the Mandeb Strait emerged Sunday, providing new details on last week's suicide attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels that killed two Saudi sailors and wounded three others.

The footage appears to be from a camera mounted above the rear deck and helicopter landing pad of the al-Madinah, a Saudi frigate. The brief video, posted online by the al-Arabiya network Sunday shows a small vessel approaching the ship's stern at high speed just before exploding.

A video posted early last week by al-Masirah TV, a pro-Houthi station, showed the frigate as it was attacked. However, because of the camera's distance it was unclear if a missile or suicide vessel had hit the ship. On Tuesday, the Saudi Press Agency said three suicide vessels had attacked the frigate. The Madinah repelled two but one hit the stern, causing a fire on board, the press agency said. The ship returned to port in Jeddah under its own power over the weekend.


Comment: Yemen rebels hit Saudi naval warship with missile attack


Comment: More on the Yemen conflict: The Southern Movement and the ambiguities of the Yemen civil war

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Propaganda

Sunday Times 'propaganda' probe goes after RT advertisers, misquotes MP


RT
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:54 UTC
RT studio
© Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik Russia Today newsroom
Advertisers "panicked" and pulled airtime on RT UK after the Sunday Times called them to ask for comment for an upcoming article about RT, according to a sales house used by advertisers on the channel.

"The Agencies on behalf of their clients pulled their airtime for the reason that they had been contacted by the Sunday Times. The Sunday Times asked them to make comment on their advertising on RT for the Sunday 5th February edition. These advertisers have panicked about the content of the article and pulled their airtime," the sales house said in comments on Tuesday.

"The sales house the advertisers use to order airtime on RT UK has informed us that several companies at once decided to break up with RT after phone calls from the Sunday Times," RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said.

"Meanwhile, the Sunday Times article alleges that the advertisers refused to cooperate with us because of 'Kremlin propaganda,' and it also cites a British MP urging to boycott RT, though in fact he didn't say that," she emphasized.

The RT Press Office said that "the calls from the sales house with requests to pull advertisements from several companies came shortly after the Sunday Times requested comment from RT for their story."

Comment: Since directs attacks on RT such as attempting to cut off its banking access have failed, the UK PTB appears to be going after RT UK's revenue streams.

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Light Saber

Iran's supreme leader Khamenei: Trump 'shows real face of America'


RT
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:48 UTC
Iran Khamenei
© Khameni.ir/Agence France PresseIran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
In his first speech since the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Republican has shown the real face of America to the world.

"We are thankful to [Trump] for making our life easy as he showed the real face of America," Khamenei told a meeting of military commanders in Tehran, according to his website.

"During his election campaign and after that, he confirmed what we have been saying for more than 30 years about the political, economic, moral and social corruption in the US ruling system," he added.

Khamenei blasted Trump days after he imposed new sanctions against Iran over its development of ballistic missiles. Trump has also criticized a nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama, which the new administration reportedly seeks to renegotiate to be more to its liking.
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MIB

Of course not: German intel finds no proof of Russian 'disinformation ops' against Berlin


RT
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:44 UTC
German intelligence agencies logo
© Fabrizio Bensch / DPA / Global Look Press
Following a year-long inquiry, German intelligence agencies have found no reliable evidence of a Russian "disinformation campaign" against Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, according to media citing cabinet and security sources.

The German intelligence service (BND) and the counterintelligence agency (BfV) had been searching for evidence of Russian interference in the country's domestic affairs for nearly a year, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday.

"We have not found any smoking gun," a cabinet source told the paper.

The inquiry was similar to the US intelligence community's efforts to attribute the notorious 2016 Democratic National Convention email leak to Russian 'hacking groups.'
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Evil Rays

O'Reilly's killer quote in keeping with trend to boorish US "journalism"


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:33 UTC
Fox News Bill O’Reilly
© Jeff Christensen/Associated PressFox News host Bill O’Reilly
Commenting on 's recent remarks about President Putin and his further theatrical refusal to apologize for the groundless insult, Russian political analyst Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak told Sputnik that such boorishness has long become a characteristic feature of today's American journalism.

This past weekend US President Donald Trump gave an interview to Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. O'Reilly, among other things, called Putin a "killer," to which the US leader responded: "You think our country's so innocent?"

The remark about the Russian leader was later addressed by Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said that the "words on the part of the Fox News reporter are unacceptable, offensive. To be honest, of course, we would prefer to get apologies addressed to the [Russian] president from such a respected broadcaster."

This however provoked a theatrical reaction from O'Reilly who refused to apologize, claiming that he might have something ready in roughly six years.

Commenting on the remarks of the US host, Russian political analyst and expert in American studies, Mikhail Sinelnikov-Orishak, told Radio Sputnik that such boorishness has long become a characteristic feature of today's American journalism.

Comment: Fox is shameless in their pursuit of ratings. O'Reilly's a pot-stirrer and enjoys doing what he's paid to do. Probably thinks it's 'cutting edge journalism".

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Cookies

President Trump: 'I don't know Putin' but 'haters going crazy'


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:03 UTC
"Haters are going crazy," Donald Trump said reiterating he had no deals with Russia.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he did not know Russian President Vladimir Putin and had no deals with Russia, yet the "haters are going crazy," while his predecessor Barack Obama was able to make a deal with Iran without an issue.


Comment: Read more:

US Threatens Iran for Daring to Defend the Iranian People

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Snakes in Suits

Canadian Defense Ministry to arm Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Iraq


RT
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 15:14 UTC
Kurdish Peshmerga forces
© Rodi Said / Reuters
The Canadian Defense Ministry says it has received official approval from Iraqi authorities to supply Kurdish Peshmerga forces with light weapons, communication tools, defense equipment and medicine to help them fight Islamic State terrorists in Iraq.

"Canada had requested the Iraqi government to send an official endorsement on the arms delivery to the Kurdish forces and we have received Baghdad's official endorsement, signed in December of last year," the Canadian Defense Ministry's Communications Advisor Dominique Tessie told Kurdish media outlet Xendan on Monday, Kurdistan 24 reported.
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