Turkish-Russian Rapprochement bodes ill for NATO's Chechen 'Rebels'

Long before NATO member Turkey started flooding neighboring Syria with arms and fighters, the country already played a major role in destabilizing Russia's North Caucasus with a similar approach. Back in the day, the "Syrian rebels" were called "Chechen rebels" and NATO was doing its best to support them.

The Turkish government generously provided refuge to Chechen fighters and refugees, using them later as cannon fodder in Syria or as bargaining chips vis-à-vis Russia.

Turkey has long been a mecca for Russian-speaking jihadists, even before the Syrian conflict, but this could be changing very soon as a result of the recent Turkish-Russian rapprochement.

On October 26, Turkish authorities launched a nationwide counter-terrorism operation, raiding a total of 31 addresses in five provinces and detaining 81 people, including 60 foreign nationals.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."—Philosopher George Santayana

Stay alert, America.

This is not the time to drop our guards, even for a moment.

Nothing has changed since the election to alter the immediate and very real dangers of roadside strip searches, government surveillance, biometric databases, citizens being treated like terrorists, imprisonments for criticizing the government, national ID cards, SWAT team raids, censorship, forcible blood draws and DNA extractions, private prisons, weaponized drones, red light cameras, tasers, active shooter drills, police misconduct and government corruption.

Time alone will tell whether those who put their hopes in a political savior will find that trust rewarded or betrayed.

Personally, I'm not holding my breath.

I've been down this road before.

I've studied history.

I know what comes next.

It's early days yet, but President-elect Trump—like his predecessors—has already begun to dial back many of the campaign promises that pledged to reform a broken system of government.

The candidate who railed against big government and vowed to "drain the swamp" of lobbyists and special interest donors has already given lobbyists, corporate donors and members of the governmental elite starring roles in his new administration.

America, you've been played.

This is what happens when you play politics with matters of life, death and liberty.

You lose every time.

Unfortunately, in this instance, we all lose because of the deluded hypocrisy of the Left and the Right, both of which sanctioned the expansion of the police state as long as it was their party at the helm.

For the past eight years, the Left—stridently outspoken and adversarial while George W. Bush was president—has been unusually quiet about things like torture, endless wars, drone strikes, executive orders, government overreach and fascism.

As Glenn Greenwald points out for The Washington Post:

Beginning in his first month in office and continuing through today, Obama not only continued many of the most extreme executive-power policies he once condemned, but in many cases strengthened and extended them. His administration detained terrorism suspects without due process, proposed new frameworks to keep them locked up without trial, targeted thousands of individuals (including a U.S. citizen) for execution by drone, invoked secrecy doctrines to shield torture and eavesdropping programs from judicial review, and covertly expanded the nation's mass electronic surveillance...

Liberals vehemently denounced these abuses during the Bush presidency... But after Obama took office, many liberals often tolerated — and even praised — his aggressive assertions of executive authority. It is hard to overstate how complete the Democrats' about-face on these questions was once their own leader controlled the levers of power... After just three years of the Obama presidency, liberals sanctioned a system that allowed the president to imprison people without any trial or an ounce of due process.

Suddenly, with Trump in the White House for the next four years, it's all fair game again.

As the sellside reports analyzing the post-president Trump world keep pouring in, one that caught our attention was from Morgan Stanley's Andrew Sheets in which the strategist openly admits that pretty much nobody has any idea what is coming:

Most remarkably, however, after three debates, two conventions and an election that seemed to last forever, there remains a great deal of uncertainty over what type of president Trump will actually be. In an election that was dominated by coverage of tweets, videos and emails, policy questions received surprisingly little airtime. And those questions are now crucial for markets.

To a remarkable extent, investors we've spoken to both before and after November 8 disagree on what President-Elect Trump will actually do. Many have told us, confidently, that they believe that, while he said some extreme things on the campaign trail, he is ultimately a moderate, pragmatic businessman. A deal-maker who will delegate policy to experts, lead with market-friendly (almost Keynesian) fiscal stimulus and ultimately avoid a large fight on trade. Other investors take a less benign view. They say the President-Elect should be taken at his word, and that since the start of his campaign he has defied predictions that he would moderate his tone or policy message.

The problem, according to Morgan Stanley, is during the campaign, "Trump was a master at keeping both possibilities open, broadening his appeal. Like Schrodinger's cat, his policies existed in a state of being both pragmatic and radical, all at the same time. Upcoming cabinet appointments offer clues to which interpretation is right. Until then, we promise to keep an open mind, and focus on modelling the different paths a Trump administration could take, and what it means for markets."

US President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have held their first telephone call, in which the two leaders discussed Syria and agreed to improve and develop bilateral ties, the Kremlin said in a statement.

In their telephone conversation, the two leaders agreed that they share a common view on "uniting efforts in the fight with the common enemy number one - international terrorism and extremism," the Kremlin said in a statement published on its website late Monday. The Kremlin added that Putin and Trump also discussed ways to settle the Syria crisis.

Putin and Trump paid special attention to the importance of establishing a stable basis for bilateral relations by developing trade and economic ties between the two countries and working toward "constructive cooperation," the Kremlin said.

The president and the president-elect agreed to keep in contact by telephone and have discussed the idea of meeting in person.

US President-elect Donald Trump has named the Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus as his future White House chief of staff, and appointed his campaign CEO and chairman of Breitbart News Stephen Bannon as chief strategist.

"I am thrilled to have my very successful team continue with me in leading our country," Trump said in a statement. "Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to a historic victory. Now I will have them both with me in the White House."

The chief of staff is the highest-ranking employee of the White House, who is appointed directly by the president without Senate confirmation and serves as the personal secretary and agenda-setter for the US leader.

The appointment of Priebus may indicate a step back from Trump's campaign promise to "drain the swamp" of the Washington establishment, as the RNC chairman has close ties to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. On the other hand, this may help him to push his agenda through the Senate.

Russia has developed a system designed to network and control Murmansk-BN long-range jammers capable of disrupting radio communications of US and NATO militaries at a range exceeding 1,864 miles, Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET) said.

This system is expected to be a part of the national strategic electronic warfare (EW) system, which is currently being developed in Russia. It can be viewed as an asymmetrical response to the Pentagon's doctrine of a network-centric warfare, the adviser of KRET's first deputy general director Vladimir Mikheev said.

The Russian strategic EW system applies a similar approach to defense. "It is meant to disrupt information environment and prevent an adversary from receiving and sending command and goal-oriented information," he explained.

A prototype of the KRET's subsystem has successfully passed state trials. It will enter mass production in the near future, the defense contractor noted. KRET's press service did not provide information on when the new EW system will enter service with the Russian Armed Forces, telling Sputnik that it will be unveiled later.

The Murmansk-BN complexes, which the new system will control, are aimed at disrupting radio communications at a maximum range of more than 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles). The jammer is specifically geared at tackling high frequency communications systems, including the High Frequency Global Communications System.

The HFGCS is a worldwide network of transmitters which provides command and control communications between ground agencies and US military aircraft and ships. Washington's military partners in NATO are said to have access to this network.

George Soros and other rich liberals who spent tens of millions of dollars trying to elect Hillary Clinton are gathering in Washington for a three-day, closed door meeting to retool the big-money left to fight back against Donald Trump.

The conference, which kicked off Sunday night at Washington's pricey Mandarin Oriental hotel, is sponsored by the influential Democracy Alliance donor club, and will include appearances by leaders of most leading unions and liberal groups, as well as darlings of the left such as House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Keith Ellison, according to an agenda and other documents obtained by POLITICO.

The meeting is the first major gathering of the institutional left since Trump's shocking victory over Hillary Clinton in last week's presidential election, and, if the agenda is any indication, liberals plan full-on trench warfare against Trump from Day One. Some sessions deal with gearing up for 2017 and 2018 elections, while others focus on thwarting President-elect Trump's 100-day plan, which the agenda calls "a terrifying assault on President Obama's achievements — and our progressive vision for an equitable and just nation."

A Russian fighter jet crashed into the sea shortly into a training flight off the coast of Syria, Russia's Ministry of Defense has announced.

"As a result of a technical malfunction during a training flight an incident occurred to a carrier-based MiG-29," read an official statement. "The pilot catapulted was delivered to the air carrier Admiral Kuznetsov by a rescue crew. The pilot was not hurt, and is ready for future missions."

The flagship of the Russian Navy, the Admiral Kuznetsov leads a fleet positioned in the eastern Mediterranean, which has been conducting reconnaissance missions over Syria since arriving in mid-October.

Russia's only aircraft carrier is the base for over 20 fighter jets, which have supplemented a similar-sized air force contingent at a land base in Khmeimim, outside Latakia. The forces are in the region at the invitation of President Bashar Assad, who requested Russia's aid over a year ago.

Britain is facing a diplomatic crisis with the US over Donald Trump's plans to forge an alliance with Vladimir Putin and bolster the Syrian regime. In a significant foreign policy split, officials admitted that Britain will have some "very difficult" conversations with the President-elect in coming months over his approach to Russia.

It comes after Mr Trump used his first interviews, since winning the US election, to indicate that he will withdraw support for rebels in Syria and thank Vladimir Putin for sending him a "beautiful" letter. Mr Trump said that he will instead join forces with Russia and focus on defeating Isil. He has previously said it would be "nice" if the US and Russia could work together to "knock the hell out of Isil".

His views are in stark contrast with those of Theresa May, who has accused President Assad's regime of perpetrating "atrocious violence" and said that the long-term future of Syria must be "without Assad". Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, has accused Russia of perpetrating war crimes over the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

The dramatic shift in US policy has prompted significant concern in the Foreign Office, and Britain will use the next three months before Mr Trump enters the White House to try to convince him of the importance of removing President Assad. Mr Johnson is expected to fly to the US within weeks to meet with senior figures in Mr Trump's administration and make clear that Britain believes that Mr Assad must go.

The diplomatic tensions emerged as a flotilla of Russian warships which passed through the English Channel has now arrived off the coast of Syria ahead of a major offensive against Isil.

In other developments:

• Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, warned that European members of Nato have become "too dependent" on the support of the US after Mr Trump accused them of failing to pull their weight.
• Mrs May will on Monday highlight the importance of globalisation to international security in an ever-changing World. She will also compare the US election to Brexit and say that that the West must recognise the concerns of people who have "seen their communities changed" by migration.
• Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, met with members of Donald Trump's inner circle at Trump Tower in New York after saying Theresa May must "mend fences" with the President Elect.
• Marie Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right Front National, praised President Putin for "defending the interests of his own country" as she criticised US and European aggression towards Russia.
• Mr Johnson boycotted a "crisis" meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels to discuss how Europe will deal with the aftermath of the US election.
• Mr Trump said on Twitter yesterday: "This will prove to be a great time in the lives of all Americans. We will unite and we will win, win, win!"

In his first interview Mr Trump told the Wall Street Journal that his administration will prioritise defeating Isil in Syria rather than removing President Assad.

The Second American Revolution has succeeded and the American People have beaten The Establishment, but just like the First American Revolution before it, the hardest challenges now lie ahead. Trump needs to unify the unprecedentedly polarized nation and rebuild the socio-economic fabric that the prior class of "politically correct" globalists destroyed, and he also must make good on his campaign promises which inspired Middle America to rally behind him in the first place. Not only that, but he and his movement must repel the Clintonian Counter-Revolution that Hillary, her "deep state" neoconservative backers in the permanent military-intelligence-military bureaucracies, and George Soros' Color Revolutionary cadre are hatching at this very moment.

Lame duck Obama is collaborating with them and facilitating their disturbances by refusing to deploy the National Guard to deal with their incipient nationwide riots, which will make it all the more difficult for President-elect Trump once he officially enters office early next year.

Their plan is create so much chaos that Trump is forced to concede on his signature slogan to "Lock Her Up!" in the interests of "national unity", and they want to hold the Damocles' Sword of Color Revolutions and Hybrid War over his head in order to pressure him into preserving some of elements of the Old System, after which they inevitably plan to harness the inertia that they would gain by this to topple Trump and the New System that he's building to "Make America Great Again".

Hillary, Soros, and the neoconservatives probably won't succeed at overthrowing Trump and carrying out their envisioned regime change fantasy, but they might end up manipulating the overarching narrative of his presidency before he even has a chance to script it. By recruiting the "Black Lives Matter" urban extremists that they spawned a few years ago and integrating them into the anti-Trump riots, the Hybrid War organizers are trying to artificially inject a racial character into the political unrest, planning in advance to accuse Trump of a "white supremacist/racist crackdown" the moment he orders the local police forces, SWAT teams, and National Guard to deal with the unrest if it's still ongoing around the time of his inauguration.