Puppet MastersS


Jet2

Report data on US strike on Syrian army's position in Deir Ezzor contradicts claims of 'mistake'

Gareth Porter
Middle East eye
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 18:06 UTC
US fighter jet
© Agence France-Presse
The US has led a military coalition targeting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since 2014
Moscow and Damascus cited the attacks as the reason for declaring an end to the ceasefire in Syria

The summary report on an investigation into US and allied air strikes on Syrian government troops has revealed irregularities in decision-making consistent with a deliberate targeting of Syrian forces.

The report, released by US Central Command on 29 November, shows that senior US Air Force officers at the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar, who were responsible for the decision to carry out the September airstrike at Deir Ezzor:
  • misled the Russians about where the US intended to strike so Russia could not warn that it was targeting Syrian troops
  • ignored information and intelligence analysis warning that the positions to be struck were Syrian government rather than Islamic State
  • shifted abruptly from a deliberate targeting process to an immediate strike in violation of normal Air Force procedures
Last week Brig. Gen. Richard Coe, the lead US official on the investigating team, told reporters that US air strikes in Deir Ezzor on 17 September, which killed at least 62- and possibly more than 100 - Syrian army troops, was the unintentional result of "human error".

The report itself says that the investigators found "no evidence of misconduct" - but it is highly critical of the decision process and does not offer any explanations for that series of irregularities.
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Gear

Enough is enough! Western media coverage of Aleppo is a complete inversion of truth

John Wight
Sputnik
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 20:07 UTC
Aleppo Russian military hospital
The killing and wounding of Russian medical personnel in a rocket attack on a military field hospital in Aleppo raises again the question of who is actively lending support to the terrorists in Syria, people depicted in the West as 'moderates' in a monstrous inversion of the truth.

Such has been the Goebbelsian nature of Western media coverage of the conflict in Aleppo, Nusra Front (now Jabhat Fateh al-Sham) have morphed from a terrorist organization, which in its methodology and objectives is near indistinguishable from Daesh (otherwise known as Islamic State), into a latter day version of the French resistance or Partisans of Second World War repute.

In the process the only real moderates engaged in the conflict in Syria — the Syrian Arab Army, Russia, Iran, and other allies — have been demonized, accused of targeting and terrorizing civilians, including children, when they have in fact been liberating them.


Comment:

Comment: Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press.

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Vader

NGO org Reprieve says: Theresa May's Gulf speech a 'sales pitch' that ignores human rights reform


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:33 UTC
Theresa May
© Carl Court / ReutersBritain's Prime Minister Theresa May.
Prime Minister Theresa May's vision of cooperation with authoritarian Gulf theocracies is little more than a 'sales pitch' at the expense of human rights, humanitarian NGO Reprieve has said.

May addressed the press from the deck of a warship on Tuesday after her meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council, laying out her vision for UK relations with the kingdoms.

However, Reprieve has slammed the PM for what it sees as her placing business before human rights in the region.

It claims that active UK support for, among other things, Saudi prisons and military operations in Yemen and the detention of protesters - many of them juveniles - in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Comment: Actually, if Theresa May really had any conviction at all about wanting to support human rights in the Gulf states, she would be calling for something like BDS, or the sanctions against South Africa in the 90's - which worked. But, alas, May is there to help maintain the hellish status quo.

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Top Secret

'Brain drain' at the NSA: Mass exodus of talented employees


Sputnik
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 01:03 UTC
NSA sign
© Sputnik
On Tuesday, former National Security Agency director Keith Alexander noted that morale issues are causing a "brain drain" at the agency, resulting in some of the most talented intelligence workers seeking greener pastures outside of the federal government.

Alexander, who headed the NSA between 2005-2014, told a conference that a combination of higher paying private-sector jobs, negative media coverage, and other factors have created significant retention problems at the agency.

"I do hear that people are increasingly leaving in large numbers and it is a combination of things that start with [morale] and there's now much more money on the outside," he said, according to CyberScoop, "I am honestly surprised that some of these people in cyber companies make up to seven figures. That's five times what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes...Do the math. [The NSA] has great competition."

Alexander feels that the low opinion of the NSA, brought on by bad press, is affecting retention as well. "You see politicians raising their phones saying, 'they're listening to your phone calls, they're reading your emails' ... what we did is enrage people," he said, adding, "We gave them that impression based on the way that it was reported across all of the media."


Comment: No! You enrage people because they cherish their privacy and they resent you spying on them for no good reason other than you can.

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Gold Bar

India confiscates gold and jewelry in raids on hidden money

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Mish Talk
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 22:28 UTC
Credit Suisse gold bars
Global financial repression picks up steam, led by India. After declaring large denomination notes illegal, India now targets gold.

It's not just gold bars or bullion. The government has raided houses, no questions asked, confiscating jewelry.

For background to this article, please see my November 27 article Cash Chaos in India, 86% of Money in Circulation Withdrawn; Cash Still King in Japan.

Large denomination means 500-rupee ($7.30) and 1,000-rupee notes ($14.60), which account for more than 85 percent of the money supply. They are no longer legal tender, effective immediately.

As one might imagine, chaos ensued. And it continues.

Comment: For more on this story: What's India doing? Cash ban and transaction tax plan leading to further instability

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Phoenix

Fmr. US Army Colonel: The 'cauldron of war' & Russian training have forged a new Syrian Army (VIDEO)

Patrick Lang
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 22:09 UTC
Syrian soldier

Former US army colonel believes he sees evidence of great professionalism and skill in combat footage featuring Syrian army units in Aleppo

Al-Masdar:
Video footage emerged portraying the fierce clashes between the government forces and the opposing jihadists inside east Aleppo.

The footage captured the Syrian Army's elite Tiger Forces undergoing violent urban battles in Karm Al-Maysar district which was captured along with a number of other districts west of the Aleppo International Airport.

Notably, the Syrian Armed Forces managed to capture approximately 60% of the rebel-held eastern districts since operations resumed almost ten days ago.
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Star of David

Now that Mattis thinks Israeli occupation is apartheid, will the lobby blackballing fail?

Juan Cole
Inforrmed Comment
Fri, 02 Dec 2016 21:52 UTC
James Mattis
The interview of Gen. James Mattis by Wolf Blitzer at Aspen in 2013, in which the recently-retired former CENTCOM commander spoke freely on Middle East policy, has come back to haunt him now that Donald Trump has put him forward as the next Secretary of Defense.

At a time when the US has ground troops in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, however, it is not his position on those conflicts that is controversial. It is his remarks on Secretary of State John Kerry's attempts at peace talks between Israel and Palestine . Alternet quoted him as saying:
"So we've got to work on [peace talks] with a sense of urgency. I paid a military security price every day as a commander of CENTCOM because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel, and [because of this] moderate Arabs couldn't be with us because they couldn't publicly support those who don't show respect for Arab Palestinians."
Everybody involved in US foreign policy and security knows that aggressive Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank and siege of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip is a major cause of terrorism against the United States, since Washington is blamed for it, and is a major security problem because it makes the US a pariah in the Muslim world. One of the reasons Usama Bin Laden gave for attacking the US was the Israeli mistreatment of stateless Palestinians:
"'Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula. '
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Caesar

The Global Ramifications of Aleppo's Liberation

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 21:52 UTC
Putin Assad
© Unknown
The Battle of Aleppo is a Stalingrad moment in the war against Islamic terrorism. Syria and her allies have shown that wars against Islamic terrorism can be won, that NATO and the Saudis do not always get their way and that the world can be made safer when genuine partners cooperate against the forces of evil.

Aleppo is almost fully free. The Syrian Arab Army, Russia and their allies have liberated one of the most important cities in the Middle East. This represents the most historically significant event in the Middle East since 2003, when Iraq was invaded and Saddam's regime fell. It is not yet the proverbial Battle of Berlin, but it is a Stalingrad moment for the Middle East.

2003 was the beginning of a thirteen year cycle during which hell was unleashed upon the Middle East at the hands of the main NATO powers. Strong, secular, modern regimes were invaded. Cultures were eradicated, the rights of minorities destroyed. Into this power vacuum entered Islamic terrorists, the most sophisticated of which were funded by the despotic Gulf states.

Comment: Further reading:

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Eye 2

Best of the Web: US Empire goes from protecting war criminal Cheney from prosecution to honoring him with a bust at Emancipation Hall

Glenn Greenwald
The Intercept
Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:33 UTC
cheney
© Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
As vice president, Dick Cheney was a prime architect of the worldwide torture regime implemented by the U.S. government (which extended far beyond waterboarding), as well as the invasion and destruction of Iraq, which caused the deaths of at least 500,000 people and more likely over a million. As such, he is one of the planet's most notorious war criminals.

President Obama made the decision in early 2009 to block the Justice Department from criminally investigating and prosecuting Cheney and his fellow torturers, as well as to protect them from foreign investigations and even civil liability sought by torture victims. Obama did that notwithstanding a campaign decree that even top Bush officials are subject to the rule of law and, more importantly, notwithstanding a treaty signed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan requiring that all signatory states criminally prosecute their own torturers. Obama's immunizing Bush-era torturers converted torture from a global taboo and decades-old crime into a reasonable, debatable policy question, which is why so many GOP candidates are now openly suggesting its use.

But now, the Obama administration has moved from legally protecting Bush-era war criminals to honoring and gushing over them in public. Yesterday, the House of Representatives unveiled a marble bust of former Vice President Cheney, which — until a person of conscience vandalizes or destroys it — will reside in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol.
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Treasure Chest

Americans are paying Apple millions to shelter overseas profits

Andrea Wong
Bloomberg
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 21:23 UTC
apple
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Over the years, Apple Inc. has become the poster child for U.S. multinationals accused of sheltering overseas profits to avoid the IRS. What's gone largely unnoticed is that it's been paid more than half a billion dollars by the U.S. government to do just that.

Taking advantage of an exemption tucked into America's Byzantine tax code, Apple stashed much of its foreign earnings—tax-free—right here in the U.S., in part by purchasing government bonds, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. In return, the Treasury Department paid Apple at least $600 million and possibly much more over the past five years in the form of interest, a Bloomberg review of its regulatory filings shows.
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