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Sputnik exclusive report from besieged Aleppo city; Russian General Staff reports on military situation, humanitarian op

Mikhail Alaeddin
Sputnik
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:26 UTC
aleppo
© SPUTNIK/ MICHAEL ALAEDDIN
The Syrian army has repelled attacks by terrorist groups in the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo for ten days, and has managed to launch a counterattack in some districts, backed by air forces and artillery.

Aleppo has been mired in intense fighting, and the Syrian army and local militia forces have encircled groups of terrorists in eastern districts of the city. Meanwhile, militants managed to cut the entire city off from the rest of Syria for three days.

A RIA Novosti correspondent was one of the first foreign journalists to reach Aleppo after the the so-called road of life into the city was opened and visit front line positions on the southwestern front, accompanied by special troops from the Syrian army.

Comment: The Russian General Staff released the following information today:
Rudskoy estimated terrorists' losses in less than a week at over 1,000 fighters, seven tanks, eight armored personnel carriers, 29 pieces of artillery and 85 vehicles with mounted weapons. "The main efforts of [Syrian] government forces supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces are aimed at preventing terrorists transfering backup forces to the southwestern outskirts of the city of Aleppo," Chief of the Main Operational Directorate Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said.
...
"The most alarming situation has developed on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo, where terrorists have formed a group of about 7,000 fighters armed with tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery and weapon-mounted vehicles during the last week," Rudskoy said.

Rudskoy told reporters Jabhat Fatah al Sham militants, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, with reinforcements from regions under their control across three provinces, broke through the Syrian army's defenses and occupied military academies there. "These militant actions had no significant effect on the situation. Areas under their control are under constant fire from government troops and militia. This completely eliminates the possibility of arms and ammunition deliveries there by terrorists in eastern Aleppo," he affirmed.
...
A three-hour humanitarian window with a full cessation of hostilities will be opened every day to ensure safe passage for aid convoys into the Syrian city of Aleppo, Chief of the Main Operational Directorate Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said. "To ensure complete safety in the passage of convoys inside Aleppo, humanitarian 'windows' will be established tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time [07:00-10:00 GMT] at which time all hostilities, air strikes and shelling will cease" ...

Rudskoy told reporters the Syrian government forces and the Russian air groups were ready to provide security to all organizations interested in providing humanitarian aid to the residents of Aleppo. "All seven of the opened humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians and militants who want to surrender are open and are working around the clock. Ambulances and hot food distribution centers are deployed nearby. There are supplies of drinking water and food products," Rudskoy told reporters. The Russian military has delivered over 50 tonnes (55.1 US tons) of food and medical supplies as well as 93 tonnes (102.5 US tons) of potable water to the residents of Syria's Aleppo, he added.

Russia supports the United Nations' proposal to establish joint control over humanitarian aid deliveries to the population of Aleppo along the main supply road, the Russian General Staff said Wednesday. "We are ready to engage in constructive dialogue with all parties interested in resolving the Syrian crisis. We support the UN proposal for the establishment of joint control over the delivery of humanitarian aid to Aleppo along Castello road," Chief of the Main Operational Directorate Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said.


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Heart - Black

US refuses to apologize for nuclear bombs used to kill 226,000 civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki


Sputnik
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:14 UTC
Hiroshima Nagasaki nuclear bombs
© AP Photo/ Stanley Troutman
Contrary to a popular assertion that nuclear bombs used on civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to end World War II, US government documents have indicated that the atomic-bomb atrocities were "test blasts" to "justify" weapons development expense.

On Tuesday, the 71st anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki, a massacre just three days after the annihilation of some 146,000 people in Hiroshima, the White House has again refused to issue an apology to the people of Japan for what some historians call an act of genocide.

Many in the United States believe that, despite the carnage, the use of the weapons was a necessary evil to bring about a quick end to World War II. Recently, the Obama Administration has set about to increase and make more usable the US nuclear weapon stockpile, budgeting some $1 trillion over the next 30 years toward "nuclear modernization," while Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump states blandly, "why can't we use them?"

To mark the anniversary of the Nagasaki attack, Loud & Clear's Brian Becker sat down with Kevin Kamps, an activist with the radioactive watchdog organization Beyond Nuclear.
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Attention

Mending relations: Here's what happened in Baku between Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:07 UTC
Aliyev, Rouhani and Putin
The summit meeting in Baku suggests a mending of relations between Azerbaijan and Iran and Russia and a further consolidation of integration processes in Central Asia and in southern Eurasia.

As Vladimir Putin meets Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg and prepares for a meeting with Sargsyan of Armenia tomorrow, he has just completed another key meeting, this time in Baku in Azerbaijan with the Presidents of Iran and Azerbaijan, Rouhani and Aliyev.

Before discussing this meeting it is important to remember that Rouhani though Iran's President is not Iran's leader. Iran's Supreme Leader is Ayatollah Khamenei who scarcely ever leaves Iran but who Putin met during his own most recent visit to Iran in November last year. Rouhani's status is not therefore exactly analogous to Putin's or Aliyev's. Rouhani does however have Khamenei's confidence and there is no reason to think that at the meeting in Baku he was not speaking with the full authority and backing of the whole Iranian leadership.
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Question

Did British military leak report on Russian military capabilities to secure more funding for MoD?


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:15 UTC
soldiers
© Reuters / SputnikBritish (L) and Russian (R) soldiers
A leaked report suggests British military leaders are deeply concerned about Russia's military capabilities, but questions have arisen over the nature of the leaks, as the UK has a history of dumping information into the public sphere for strategic effect.

The findings seen by the Times outline concern that the British military has been outstripped by Russia in terms of equipment, cyber warfare, and conventional fighting capacity.

Sections of the document, entitled "Insights to 'Training Smarter' Against a Hybrid Adversary," have been seen by The Times newspaper.

The document is said to have been written in March under the direction of General Sir Nick Carter, the professional head of the British Army. It is understood to have been based on lessons gleaned from a single exercise carried out in Ukraine.

It looks at Russian combat tactics, cyber warfare methods, and appears to suggest that Russia is using the Ukrainian theater as a practice run for a war with the West.
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Propaganda

'New York Times relentlessly biased against Trump', as reported by . . . . the New York Times

John V. Walsh
CounterPunch
Thu, 04 Aug 2016 15:56 UTC
New York Times headquarters
An astonishing piece appeared in the New York Times (NYT) recently. It reported a fierce bias in the Times' coverage of politics and current affairs, most notably when it comes to Donald Trump. The bias turns up not just in the opinion pages but in the News, reports Liz Spayd, the new "public editor," a position once called the ombudsman.

But the surprise does not end there. Spayd's report is based on letters from liberal readers, which are filling her inbox to overflowing. Here are some examples that she cites:

"You've lost a subscriber because of your relentless bias against Trump — and I'm not even a Republican," writes an Arizonan.

"I never thought I'd see the day when I, as a liberal, would start getting so frustrated with the one-sided reporting that I would start hopping over to the Fox News webpage to read an article and get the rest of the story that the NYT refused to publish," writes a woman from California.

"The NY Times is alienating its independent and open-minded readers, and in doing so, limiting the reach of their message and its possible influence," writes a Manhattanite.

Since these examples are all letters from liberals, the public editor comments:
"You can imagine what the letters from actual conservatives sound like....

"Emails like these stream into this office every day. A perception that the Times is biased prompts some of the most frequent complaints from readers. Only they arrive so frequently, and have for so long, that the objections no longer land with much heft."
Of course this is nothing new for the Times.The bias in favor of the latest project of the American Imperium has been true for my entire lifetime. But it used to be subtler, and it used to include some real information, albeit buried away somewhere deep within an article. Noam Chomsky was once fond of reminding us that it was better to read the Times articles backwards, because some truth was buried in the last couple paragraphs.

Comment: Other choice Times items: and some background

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Top Secret

Declassified docs partially reveal U.S. role in Argentina dirty war - CIA/DIA docs remain classified


teleSUR
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 15:48 UTC
argentina
© ReutersHuman rights activists and families of the disappeared under the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina remember Dirty War victims.
As Hillary Clinton attempts to seal Henry Kissinger's endorsement, documents reveal how he undermined Jimmy Carter's human rights agenda in Argentina.

In a much-awaited step toward uncovering the historical truth of the U.S.-backed Dirty War in Argentina in the 1970's and 80's, the United States has delivered over 1,000 pages of classified documents to the South American country. But critics argue that there are major gaps in the files, including the exclusion of CIA documents, that keep in the dark important details of the extent of human rights violations and the U.S. role in such abuses.

The Argentine government delivered the newly-declassified documents to journalists and human rights organizations on Monday after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presented the files to President Mauricio Macri during a state visit last week.

The 1,078 pages from 14 U.S. government agencies and departments are the first in a series of public releases over the next 18 months of declassified documents related to Argentina's last military dictatorship, including Argentine Country Files, White House staff files, correspondence cables, and other archives, according to a statement from the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
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Stock Up

Saudi crude oil output at record level in July


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:07 UTC
saudi clerics
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
Riyadh said it pumped 10.67 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) in July, its biggest monthly output. Saudi oil production usually peaks in the summer, and it's a sign it won't curb output despite plummeting prices and will stay focused on market share.

Total OPEC daily production was up 46,000 barrels to 33.11 million bpd. Saudi Arabia's previous production high was 10.56 million (bpd) in June 2015.

"It's not surprising to see Saudi output at a record. The Saudis didn't want to cut back on exports and they needed to produce more to meet local summer demand. Also, the Saudis are processing more crude this year at refineries as they want to grow in the products market," analyst Anas al-Hajji told Bloomberg.

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries across the globe to burn crude oil for electricity. In the two hottest months of the year, July and August, people in the country turn on air conditioners more often, increasing the demand for crude.
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Pistol

Best of the Web: Not 'Russian intelligence': Assange hints 27-year-old Seth Rich was source of leaked emails as Wikileaks offers $20k reward for info on murdered DNC staffer


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 15:45 UTC
Julian Assange
© Peter Nicholls / Reuters
The whistleblowing organization Wikileaks wants to catch those responsible for the murder of Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich and are now offering a $20,000 reward for information.

The group's co-founder Julian Assange suggested on Dutch television that if Rich is the source of the 20,000 emails exposing the party's sabotage of the Bernie Sanders campaign in favor of Hillary Clinton, he may have been killed over it.

However, when asked if Rich was a Wikileaks source, Assange refused to comment, merely saying they were investigating the circumstances surrounding his murder.

Comment: Update:
Brad Bauman, a DC consultant to Democratic candidates, wrote us [Gateway Pundit] today. Brad says he is the spokesperson for the Rich family.
"The entire Rich family is so heartened by the outpouring of support and love that they have felt over the past few weeks as they continue to come to terms with this terrible tragedy. The family is in constant contact with authorities and thank them for their extremely thorough investigation. The family believes this matter is being handled professionally and with the seriousness that it requires.

The family welcomes any and all information that could lead to the identification of the individuals responsible, and certainly welcomes contributions that could lead to new avenues of investigation. That said, some are attempting to politicize this horrible tragedy, and in their attempts to do so, are actually causing more harm that good and impeding on the ability for law enforcement to properly do their job. For the sake of finding Seth's killer, and for the sake of giving the family the space they need at this terrible time, they are asking for the public to refrain from pushing unproven and harmful theories about Seth's murder."
Sort of confirming they were behind the hit, Killary's team now wants to add Assange to the Clinton Body Count:



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Eye 1

History of privacy violations dogs Pokemon Go's CEO John Hanke

Sam Biddle
The Intercept
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 14:56 UTC
pokemon go terms
© NianticPart of the Pokemon app terms of service
Within two weeks of its release last month, Pokemon Go, the augmented reality gaming sensation, surpassed, by one estimate, Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix in its day-to-day popularity on Android phones. Over on Apple devices, the game was downloaded more times in its first week than any app that came before it.

The suddenly vast scale of Pokemon Go adoption is matched by the game's aggressive use of personal information. Unlike, say, Twitter, Facebook, or Netflix, the app requires uninterrupted use of your location and camera — a trove of "sensitive user data," as one privacy watchdog put it in a concerned letter to federal regulators.

All the more alarming, then, that Pokemon Go is run by a man whose team literally drove one of the greatest privacy debacles of the internet era, in which Google vehicles, in the course of photographing neighborhoods for the Street View feature of the company's online maps, secretly copied digital traffic from home networks, scooping up passwords, email messages, medical records, financial information, and audio and video files.

Before Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke was the man behind an unfathomably popular smartphone goldmine, he ran Google's Geo division, responsible for nearly everything locational at a time when the search company was turning into much more, expanding away from cataloging the web and towards cataloging every city block on the planet. Hanke landed at Google after his wildly popular (and admittedly very neat) CIA-funded company Keyhole, which collected geographic imagery, was acquired in 2004 and relaunched as Google Earth in 2005. By 2007, Hanke was running basically everything at Google that involved a map. In a 2007 Wired profile, ("Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World") Hanke was lauded as a pioneer ("Led by John Hanke, Google Earth and Google Maps are delivering cartography tools to the masses") and deified, appearing in photo with an enormous globe across his shoulders.

Comment: Further reading

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Megaphone

Russian lawmakers blast ex-CIA head who called for covertly killing Russians in Syria


RT
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 15:50 UTC
Michael Morell
© Win McNamee / Agence France-PresseFormer Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell
Several Russian lawmakers have expressed extreme indignation over the statements by former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who proposed in a TV interview that US agents should "covertly" kill Russians and Iranians in Syria.

Deputy head of the State Duma Security Committee Dmitry Gorovtsov told RIA Novosti that Morel's words could be described as extremism. "In essence, this is akin to Nazi ideology. Retired officials who allow such statements should be brought to court," the Russian lawmaker said.

"Instead of trying to establish cooperation with our country and fight terrorism, Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISL] and other banned groups, the American hawks make statements that pursue only one goal - to aggravate the international situation and to worsen the mutual relations between Russia and the United States.," Gorovtsov noted

The chair of the State Duma Committee for Security, Irina Yarovaya, noted in comments that the situation can be described by the phrase "what active CIA agents have in their minds the retired ones speak out loud," referring to the Russian proverb "what a sober man thinks to himself a drunk speaks out loud."

Comment: See also: War-crazy former CIA director who supports Killary wants to kill Russians and Iranians and threaten Assad

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