Puppet MastersS


Target

ISIS retreating in Deir Ezzor and Palmyra

SAyrian army vehicle
Syrian army on the verge of breaking ISIS siege of Deir Ezzor airport, and successfully recaptures key gas fields west of Palmyra.

Following intense Russian bombing reports are trickling in that the Syrian army is on the verge of breaking ISIS's siege of Deir Ezzor airport, and has recaptured several critical gas fields west of Palmyra.

I should say that the Syrian army appears to have prioritized capture of the gas fields over recapturing Palmyra itself, though Al-Masdar says that Syrian troops are now no more than 30 km from the city.

Further north there are reports that the Kurdish militia the YPG is preparing to cut the road from Raqqa south to Deir Ezzor, severing ISIS's communications between the two towns.

Flashlight

Michael Savage: Trump should watch out for those in his inner circle

KellyAnne Conway with Donald Trump
© Mike Segars/ReutersU.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway greet supporters during his election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016.
He's been dubbed "the Godfather of Trumpmania," but Michael Savage noted on his nationally syndicated radio show Thursday that he also promised he would hold Donald Trump accountable if the real estate billionaire became president.

Savage said he's concerned that Trump's inner circle is causing him to move too fast, leading to costly mistakes, such as the raid on al-Qaida in Yemen, initially planned under Obama, that resulted in the deaths of a Navy SEAL and civilians.

He expressed particular concern about Kellyanne Conway, Trump's chief counselor and his former campaign manager, describing her as an "unknown pollster" who "came along late in the campaign and, by the way, attacked Trump for a year straight."

"I think Trump is in danger unless he wakes up to the fact that those around him may not be acting, let us say, in his best interest," Savage said.

Savage said Trump is "moving much too fast and on the wrong issues."

"He should have started with something less controversial than he did, and he should have gone a little slower," said Savage.

Comment: More background on the botched Yemen op:
  • Crazy ideas about the botched U.S. op in Yemen: Obama pettiness and Trump blunder, not a grand conspiracy
And more on Trump's possible approach to his first weeks:
  • Scott Adams: Is President Trump doing management wrong?



Attention

US missile destroyer sails off Yemen coast amid rising tensions with Iran

USS Cole navy ship
© Flickr/ U.S. Department of Defense
Amid strained relations between Iran and the US, Washington has deployed a Navy destroyer off the Yemeni coast to protect waterways from the Iran-supported Houthi militia. The USS Cole was deployed to escort vessels and carry out other patrols off southwestern Yemen, near the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

While refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000, Al Qaeda militants bombed the USS Cole by steering a boat full of explosives into the warship's side. As a result 17 American sailors died, and some three dozen were injured.

Tensions have increased between Tehran and Washington after Iran's recent ballistic missile test, with US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn on Thursday condemning the launch as "provocative," and stating that, "As of today, we are officially putting Iran on notice."


Comment: Could this be part of the reason for so much pressure on Iran? Iran will officially ditch the US dollar: Here's why it matters


USA

Hey, America! If you want to show you care about Muslims stop killing them by the millions

Syria war protest
Americans welcome only token numbers of people from countries devastated by U.S. wars of aggression. Donald Trump's current ban on travelers affects nations that were already targeted by President Obama, "a perfect example of the continuity of U.S. imperial policy in the region." The memo from State Department "dissenters" contains "not a word of support for world peace, nor a hint of respect for the national sovereignty of other peoples."

In the most dramatic expression of insider opposition to a sitting administration's policies in generations, over 1,000 U.S. State Department employees signed on to a memo protesting President Donald Trump's temporary ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries setting foot on U.S. soil. Another recent high point in dissent among the State Department's 18,000 worldwide employees occurred in June of last year, when 51 diplomats called for U.S. air strikes against the Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad.


Comment: The hypocrisy is astounding.


Neither outburst of dissent was directed against the U.S. wars and economic sanctions that have killed and displaced millions of people in the affected countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Rather, the diplomatic "rebellion" of last summer sought to pressure the Obama administration to join with Hillary Clinton and her "Big Tent" full of war hawks to confront Russia in the skies over Syria, while the memo currently making the rounds of State Department employees claims to uphold "core American and constitutional values," preserve "good will towards Americans" and prevent "potential damage to the U.S. economy from the loss of revenue from foreign travelers and students."

Stock Down

Trump shares Obama's myopia regarding business with China

Trump backside
© AFP/Saul LoebDoes Donald Trump, walking away from TPP, hand trade clout in Asia to China?
The TPP withdrawal suggests that Mr Trump is preparing - wittingly or otherwise - to cede to China leadership of trade matters within the Asia region

US President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama seem to share a common myopia when it comes to seeing the consequences of their actions with regard to trade and business with China. We saw this a year or so ago in the case of the Obama administration's refusal to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and we are seeing it again in Trump's rejection of the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP.

The TPP withdrawal suggests that Mr Trump is preparing - wittingly or otherwise - to cede to China leadership of trade matters within the Asia region, while Mr Obama's effective boycott of the AIIB showed an apparent failure to appreciate the approach of what could prove to be the "Eurasian century."

Put the two together and what emerges is the prospective eclipse of the US as an economic, and perhaps strategic, superpower within Asia and Eurasia. That would leave its main Asian ally Japan with the choice to move out of the orbit of the US and partner with China, or to strike out on its own as a would-be Asian leader.

A key difference between the TPP and AIIB issues is that Tokyo is pleading with Washington to stay on board the TPP (which Japan needs largely as a means to avert Chinese economic dominance of the region). In the case of the AIIB, Japan simply hoped the institution would fail if both the US and Japan declined to to join it.

As things turned out, the AIIB did not fail and instead it is moving forward with the backing of 56 other countries in addition to China. Relatively few people have realised the full geopolitical and economic significance of the AIIB.

Comment: Touted as the largest global trade agreement in 20 years, the TPP would have included the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It was championed by Obama as a way to open Asian markets for American goods and create a trade bloc to counter China. However, for five years, Beijing had been pushing for a trade deal in the region that excluded Washington, as in one country doesn't set the agenda for everyone. Beijing regarded the deal as Washington's attempt to oust China from global trade. Very likely that was on Obama's agenda.

Opposition to the TPP was one of the key issues of Trump's presidential campaign, calling the trade pact a "potential disaster" for the US. He stated he would prefer bilateral trade deals with individual TPP countries instead. He recently signed an executive order withdrawing the US from TPP. Trump seems more interested in the "One Belt-One Road" (OBOR) concept.

See also:


Stop

US drops Obama plan to arm Kurds to retake Raqqa from Daesh

kurds
© South East Asia Post
President Donald Trump's administration scrapped plans by former President Barack Obama to arm Kurdish fighters in northern Syria in a push to recapture the city of Raqqa from Daesh, US media reported. After being handed the plan on January 17, Trump's team decided it was so careful that it would likely fail, and threw it out, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing sources. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have not devised an alternate plan, it added.

According to the newspaper, the Obama administration had for years relied on Turkey to send troops or Syrian rebels into Raqqa, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused on fighting Syrian Kurds, which it sees as a greater threat than Daesh.

Central Command commander Gen. Joseph Votel finally asked for authorization to back the Kurds in the fall of 2016, but US administration officials delayed making a decision amid fears it would alienate Ankara.

Three weeks before Trump's January 20 inauguration, Votel and Dunford formally requested armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, machine guns and mine-clearing equipment for the Kurds and stressed that delaying the delivery could drag the Raqqa operation out for another year.

Kurdish fighters dominate the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a collective that also includes the Syrian Arab Coalition, which is made up of fighters predominantly from local Arab areas.

US-supplied armored vehicles were delivered to Syrian fighters on Tuesday, but Col. John Dorrian said they were transferred to the Syrian Arab Coalition, not the SDF. Another of the SDF's Kurdish components, the Popular Defense Units (YPG) also denied receiving arms from the US-led coalition.

Comment: Raqqa, and other cities such as Al-Bab are located outside Syrian Kurdistan. For the Kurds to be equipped to gain control of these areas would give them a strategic opportunity to finally link up the vast swath of territory and, in doing so, further escalate the Turkish-Kurd conflict.


Handcuffs

Dakota Access: Police raid new camp, evict and arrest 70+ DAPL protesters

last child camp
© Alternative Media Syndicate
Over 70 people were evicted and arrested after police raided a new camp near the Dakota Access pipeline construction, claiming it was illegal. The arrests come a day after federal officials started a final review of the pipeline.

The new camp was erected on a hill Wednesday morning, a quarter of a mile from the original Oceti Sakowin camp in the floodplain. Seven tepee frames represented the seven tribes involved in the protest.

"This is just what Crazy Horse went through when he took his last breath. He fought to his last breath, so we can be who we are, live our lives the way it was intended by the creator," a protester, Julian Bearrunner told KFYR-TV.

The new camp was spotted by officers who claimed the new camp was built on private land. By afternoon, police armored vehicles had assembled near the site and riot gear police, armed with batons and automatic rifles dismantled the camp, evicting and arresting the activists. Protesters had linked arms as police peeled them off one by one. Activists were taken to five different jails across the state.


Comment: If you have been following this story, it is sad to see this turn of events for the Standing Rock Sioux. They have been nothing less than heroic in their stand against big business and the US government in protesting the upcoming environmental concerns for their people and property.


Cards

Dutch leader Geert Wilders: 'Trump has already done more than entire EU ever to curb mass migration'

Geert Wilders
© Laszlo Balogh / ReutersDutch far-right Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders
The two-week old administration of Donald Trump has already achieved more in dealing with the mass migration crisis than all the European countries have ever done, the leader of the far-right Dutch party said.

"There is a politician who does not only keep his promises and fulfills his promises in the election campaign, but has done more to beat the mass immigration in two week's time than the whole European governments in the whole existence," Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), said during a book presentation at The Hague on Thursday.

Wilders comments was in reference to Trump's controversial travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries for 120 days - a move that sparked heated debates among politicians and in the global media.


Comment: Only Syrians have a 120-day hold on immigration. Others stipulated have a 90-day deadline.


Wilders, who also holds a rigid stance against the so-called 'open-door' policy for migrants, said he is "happily surprised with politicians like Donald J. Trump" while comparing him and his approach to "a fresh air in a room where the windows have been closed for too long."


Comment: Efficiency is a useful trait, especially if one has a clearly thought out idea what needs to happen and why. It is always a concern that the homework has not been done. In this case, given the nightmare example from Europe, perhaps it has.


Beaker

Trump gently tests waters on sanctions relief in midst of anti-Russia sentiment - Ron Paul

Ron Paul
© CNBC.comRon Paul
The slight easing of sanctions on Russia's FSB is a step in the right direction and President Trump can't be any "bolder" at the moment, while awaiting reaction from the US political establishment, Ron Paul, the veteran US politician, has said.

Further easing or the outright lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia over alleged meddling in American elections won't be easy for the new US President, since anti-Russian sentiment is very strong within the US political class, the former US Senator told RT. The order to ease some restrictions on the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is a step in the right direction and a feeler of sorts.

"I think he wants to reduce the sanctions and I think he's going to get a lot of heat for it," Paul told RT. "A lot of people believe in all the rhetoric and the discourse about 'The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming, we got to punish them.' So he has to deal with this more gently. So he puts on this example of trying to reduce sanctions, and he doesn't remove them, but I think he sort of testing the waters."

Hopefully, the possible opposition against the decision won't be too strong and Trump would be able to be consistent with his campaign promises to seek common ground with Moscow. It's still too early, however, to predict whether the US President will be able to "get bold and remove all the sanctions," according to Paul.


Comment: Ron Paul...a steadfast anchor to logic and decency.


Stock Down

Mattis: Plans for leaner Pentagon, increase budget to fight ISIS

Mattis
© DOD/MGN
The US Department of Defense will ask for additional funds in 2017 to step up operations against Islamic State and to improve battle readiness, while planning for sweeping reforms to improve efficiency, says a memo from the new Pentagon chief.

The memo from Defense Secretary James Mattis was date-stamped January 31 and made public on Thursday. It is intended as guidance for complying with President Donald Trump's January 27 memorandum ordering the rebuilding of the US armed forces.

An amendment to the 2017 military budget request will seek additional funding to address "urgent warfighting readiness shortfalls" and "new requirements driven by acceleration of the campaign against ISIS," (Islamic state, also known as ISIL or Daesh) the memo said. The amendment will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by March 1.

While the amendment will "include offsets from lower priority programs where appropriate," the amount requested will be a net increase over the fiscal year 2017 figure approved by the previous administration, according to the memo.

Comment: Fresh eyes, revised agenda, new priorities, course correction and implementation...a hopefully more efficient, productive, more transparent and saner path coming from the new administration.