There is an old anecdote about the different types of intelligence agencies. It says that a mediocre intelligence agency is protecting the government from the coup, a good intelligence agency is participating in the coup, while the best intelligence agency is organizing it. Mind you, the government in question is not the foreign government, but one's own.

However, if we examine the intelligence agencies of the Balkan states, set up after the break-up of the Yugoslav Socialist Federation, we will quickly see that we cannot even talk about mediocre intelligence agencies. These agencies have thoroughly been made into the puppets of foreign intelligence networks. For all practical intents and purposes, they do not exist as sovereign entities, but as mere transmission belts of what their foreign mentors want them to do.

Tensions between Moscow and Tokyo over the disputed Kuril Islands come from the Japanese side, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Japanese interviewers. He added that the example of China shows that such disputes can be resolved.

"We believe that we have no territorial problems whatsoever. It is Japan who believes it has territorial disputes with Russia," Putin said, referring to Japan's claim over four islands in the Kuril Archipelago, an issue that remains a big stumbling block in the relations between the two countries.

"We are natural partners in the world and the Asia-Pacific, but the absence of a peace treaty deprives us of an opportunity to develop our relations in a multifaceted way," the Russian leader toldKasuya Takayuki, CEO of Nippon Television Holding, and Takeshi Mizoguchi, editor-in-chief of Yomiuri newspaper. He added that the state of ceasefire between the two countries is an "anachronism" that "must be eliminated."

ISIS-Al Qaeda was defeated in Aleppo...the establishment media is not happy about that.

Aleppo is liberated. The sovereign, secular, internationally recognized government of Syria has retaken the city from US-Saudi-Turkish funded and trained Al Qaeda-Al Nusra- ISIS Wahhabi Jihadists.

The Duran's Alexander Mercouris reported yesterday...

As the "Great Battle of Aleppo' approaches its end - which will probably come tomorrow - there could not be a sharper contrast between the way in which the news of the Syrian army's victory is being celebrated in Syria, and the gloom and anger with which it is being received in the West.

In Aleppo itself film shows joyful Syrians flooding onto the streets to celebrate the Syrian army's victory and the coming end of the fighting in their city.

Meanwhile in the West UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who heads a UN Secretariat which has played an appalling role in supporting Western regime change agendas first in Libya and more recently in Syria, has issued a statement expressing his "grave concern" about atrocities supposedly perpetrated on civilians in a way that is clearly intended to place the blame on the Syrian authorities.

Those who wish to see Al Qaeda and ISIS defeated are joyous. Those who have been supporting Al Qaeda and ISIS under the guise of "moderate rebels" are devastated.

The Duran is calling it a "liberation." The establishment media is branding it an "atrocity".

Stealing the election from Trump and the American people has become a real possibility

With the recent Friday night disinformation surprise, the corporate media and elements of both the C.I.A. and the White House are openly positioning to directly stop Donald Trump from becoming president.

The late Friday news published by both the Washington Post and New York Times claims that a secret C.I.A. assessment has confirmed that Russia not only meddled in the U.S. election but directly did so in order to help Trump win the presidency.

The reports, completely based on the claims of unnamed U.S. officials and therefore almost impossible to confirm or debunk, have set off a firestorm in the corporate media and have led to a direct call by a left leaning C.I.A. agent for a second election.

Appearing on the openly anti-Trump cable news network CNN, "former" C.I.A. agent Bob Baer called for a second Presidential election. His reasoning? The unproven claims by unnamed U.S. officials that the C.I.A. has concluded that the election was tampered with by Russia. (It's important to note here that the FBI does not believe this to be the case.)

The Washington Post continues to double-down on its Red-baiting hysteria, reporting over the weekend as follows:

"Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials."

The objective, according to the Post's perpetually anonymous sources, was this: "Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton's chances."

Now 30 electoral college members have joined the call for an intelligence briefing over alleged Russian interference before they vote on December 19. All but one of them are Democrats.

The electors, 28 Democrats and 1 Republican, representing 5.4 percent of total members, are calling on Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to disclosure more information about the CIA's secret assessment over alleged Russian interference in the US elections.

The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA concluded in a secret assessment that Russian interference helped President-elect Donald Trump win the election.

The move by Electoral College members comes as both Democratic and Republican Congressional lawmakers press for an investigation into the allegation.

Donald Trump could have the election legally stolen from him on either December 19th when the Electoral College casts their votes or on January 6th when a joint session of Congress gathers to count those votes. The establishment is in full-blown panic mode at this point, and they seem to have settled on "Russian interference in the election" as the angle that they plan to use to try to deny Trump the presidency. As you will see below, there is an all-out effort to try to persuade members of the Electoral College that are supposed to be committed to Donald Trump to cast their votes for someone else instead. And if that doesn't work, the groundwork is being laid for the Electoral College votes to potentially be invalidated when a joint session of Congress meets to count those votes on January 6th. I will explain how that would work later on in this article, but first let's take a look at 14 signs that indicate that there is a plot to use Russia as an excuse to steal the presidency from Donald Trump...

#1 A group of 10 presidential electors has sent a letter to National Intelligence Director James Clapper asking to be briefed on Russian efforts to interfere in the election in November. This group is being led by Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine.

#2 The Clinton campaign is publicly supporting the effort to arrange for the members of the Electoral College to be given an "intelligence briefing" on Russian interference in the election before they cast their votes.

#3 White House spokesman Josh Earnest claims that Donald Trump "called on Russia to hack his opponent" and that Trump "benefited from malicious Russian cyberactivity".

#4 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has announced that he supports an investigation into "Russian election interference".

#5 On Sunday, U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer, Jack Reed, John McCain and Lindsey Graham announced that they very much desire to see an investigation into Russian interference in the election.

#6 U.S. Representative David Cicilline is urging electors to consider the "extent that foreign interference in the United States presidential elections may have influenced the final result" before they cast their votes.

New Yorkers were taken aback by the sight of a large military plane circling the Manhattan skyline on Tuesday. There has been no official explanation of what the plane was doing.

According to social media users, the mysterious plane is a C-130 Hercules. Made by Lockheed Martin, it is used as a military transport plane.

According to reports, the New York Police Department have said they don't know why the plane is up there.

The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) told reporters: "We do not disclose the mission of what the plane is doing."

For the first time, Google has published a number of National Security Letters used by the FBI to demand subscriber information for specific accounts in lieu of a search warrant.

Eight such letters, dated from 2010 to 2015, were posted online on Tuesday with minor redactions, after the federal government lifted the restrictions normally associated with the NSLs. All eight letters cite authority under Title 18 Section 2079 of the US Code, used for domestic internet surveillance.

The letters demand "name, address, length of service and electronic communication transactional records" for the accounts listed, from their inception to the date on the letter, and ask Google not to "disable, suspend, lock, cancel or interrupt" service, since that might alert the user to surveillance.

"We minimized redactions to protect privacy interests, but the content of the NSLs remain as they were when served. We are also publishing the correspondence reflecting the lifting of the nondisclosure restrictions," Richard Salgado, Google's director for law enforcement and information security, wrote on the company's blog.

Senate Passes Bill Targeting Alternative Media

The United States Senate pulled a fast one. On December 8, it passed the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Countering Disinformation and Propaganda Act was added to the authorization bill.

"The passage of this bill in the Senate today takes us one critical step closer to effectively confronting the extensive, and destabilizing, foreign propaganda and disinformation operations being waged against us," said Senator Rob Portman, who introduced the original bill along with Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy. "While the propaganda and disinformation threat has grown, the U.S. government has been asleep at the wheel. Today we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines. We are going to confront this threat head-on. With the help of this bipartisan bill, the disinformation and propaganda used against our allies and our interests will fail."


The following day, the CIA concluded with "high confidence" Russia had hacked the Republican National Committee's computer systems along with Democratic organizations, reported The New York Times.