Puppet MastersS


Satellite

U.S. military communications satellite fails to reach intended orbit after propulsion failure

Irene Klotz
Reuters
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 15:44 UTC
MUOS satellite
© Lockheed Martin
A propulsion system problem has left a U.S. military communications satellite short of its intended orbit, leaving a key communications network over the Middle East, Africa and Asia without a spare, officials said on Tuesday.

The satellite, known as MUOS-5, is the second spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin Corp that has fallen short of its mission goals within the past two weeks.

On July 25, the military called off efforts to recover a Lockheed Martin weather satellite that had suffered a power system failure two years into its five-year design life.

Lockheed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Snakes in Suits

Paris strikes corporate partnership with Lafarge, who secretly sponsored ISIS for profit and has ties to Killary

Nafeez Ahmed
The Canary
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 15:27 UTC
Bataclan Paris attacks memorial
© Flickr/TakverBataclan Paris attacks memorial
The City of Paris has struck a corporate partnership with French industrial giant, Lafarge, recently accused of secretly sponsoring the Islamic State (Isis or Daesh) for profit.

Documents obtained by several journalistic investigations reveal that Lafarge has paid taxes to the terror group to operate its cement plant in Syria, and even bought Isis oil for years.

Yet according to the campaign group, SumOfUs, Lafarge is the corporate partner and sand provider to the City of Paris for this summer's Paris-Plages urban beach event. The project run by Office of the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will create artificial beaches along the river Seine in the centre and northeast of Paris.

Lafarge also has close ties to Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Apart from being a regular donor to the Clinton Foundation, Clinton herself was a director of Lafarge in the early 1990s, and did legal work for the firm in the 1980s. During her connection to Lafarge, the firm was implicated in facilitating a CIA-backed covert arms export network to Saddam Hussein.
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Propaganda

Propaganda: 'Terror' financing and the black market tobacco trade

Eliot Baker
Front Page
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 15:15 UTC
Ciggies-in-a-tire
© Belga H. Kiaser
The nanny state regulations that help fill the coffers of our enemies

In Pennsylvania last month, state representatives Russ Diamond and Rick Saccone challenged a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase (which was later passed into law), arguing that the price hike would regressively target poorer smokers and encourage black market sales. More critically, the two lawmakers pointed out that increased sales of smuggled tobacco would put more money in the pockets of violent extremists who wish to do Americans harm.

That argument raised eyebrows in the press, but the point made by Diamond and Saccone is a critically important one. A major 2015 report from the State Department identified tobacco smuggling as a major threat to national security, noting that selling illegal cigarettes is a relatively "low-risk, high reward" activity for criminal networks and terror groups, who often join forces to exploit the illicit trade. The Pennsylvania representatives had especially good reason to be concerned about their state's exposure to smuggling, since it sits on one of the most lucrative smuggling routes in the country.

Cheap cigarettes from Virginia regularly pass through Pennsylvania and Delaware on their way to being illegally sold in New York and New Jersey, where high taxes applied by liberal state governments have pushed smokers into the arms of smugglers. Last year, a court in Brooklyn sentenced Basel Ramadan to 12 years in prison for his role as the ringleader of a major trafficking ring that supplied Arab markets in New York and New Jersey. More recently, Pennsylvania state troopers caught a man with 66,600 smuggled Virginia cigarettes in his trunk at around the same time Reps. Diamond and Saccone were addressing the legislature.

Comment: Following the Nazi model: Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner

See also: Let's All Light Up!

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Stormtrooper

More armed officers deployed in UK's capital amid terrorism fears


Sputnik
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 15:20 UTC
UK police
© AP Photo/ Matt Dunham
In response to recent terrorist attacks in Europe, more armed police are being deployed in London as the UK's terror threat remains ranked at 'severe', meaning an attack is highly likely.

Six hundred specialist counter terrorist armed officers will patrol London's landmarks, railway stations and streets to reassure the public.

​Head of the Met Police Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "It is important that we get officers out there with firearms to respond when necessary," adding that it would be "foolish to ignore" the recent attacks in Europe.

Comment: UK anti-terrorism cops on permanent standby in preparation for attacks

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Magnify

Courtesy of the US: ISIS 'heat map' reveals how terror group has branched out to 18 countries

Samuel Osborne
The Independent
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 15:17 UTC
isis members
Isis has "fully operational branches" in 18 countries, a leaked briefing document received by the White House has revealed. The briefing map suggests a three-fold increase in the number of areas the terror group are operating in around the globe. Previous US State Department documents from 2014 stated Isis were only active in seven nations.

The map is part of a classified briefing document dated "August 2016", which was prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center and obtained by NBC News.

It identifies the Isis "core" states of Syria and Iraq along with nations where it has "official branches", including Algeria, Nigeria, Libya, the Sinai Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Caucasus area to the south of Russia.

The map also shows "aspiring branches" in Mali, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Isis has used pledges of allegiance by existing terrorist and insurgent group to establish franchises around the world. The terror group has also encouraged lone wolf attacks throughout Europe.

isis heat map
© National Counterterrorism CenterCounterterrorism heat map shows active Isis branches in 18 countries
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Bad Guys

The al-Qaeda-Nusra split is one big al-Sham

Robert Fisk
Independent
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 14:20 UTC
Nusra front
© Flickr/ coolloud
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is at it again. Qatar's ruler has been trying to get Jabhat al-Nusra off America's infamous "terrorist" list once more - and calculating that the institutional memory of the world's media is that of a street dog. He's right.

Last year, Tamim's Al Jazeera satellite channel produced a tiresome two-part interview with Mohamed al-Julani, Nusra's CEO, in which the poor man boasted that he had absolutely nothing against Christians, Alawites or Americans. Nusra just wanted to get rid of that pesky Assad chappy in Damascus, he told the world, along with Assad's Russki friends. Syrian Christians to Lebanon and Syrian Alawites to the grave? Nonsense. That was the claptrap peddled by the rotten, horrid Isis of which the Saudis were so enamoured.

Then in May this year, ol' Doc Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's luckless successor, told Mohamed al-Julani that he could dissociate himself from the original al-Qaeda. Bingo. The split cometh. America's enemies were breaking apart. Nusra would be the new "moderates", worthy of America's backing, certainly of Britain's - whose then-Prime Minister, David Cameron, had invented 70,000 "moderate" Syrian rebels for the world to support against Assad.

And now, wearingly, we are being served up the same old cocktail again. Claiming that he is giving his first ever recorded message - a palpable nonsense since al-Julani had bored us all last year with the same stuff - the BBC told its audience that "Syria Nusra Front announces split with al-Qaeda". And yet again, we were treated to al-Julani distancing himself from al-Qaeda and telling us that Nusra is now changing its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (Front for the Liberation of the Levant).
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Jet1

UK fighter jets bomb ISIS training center that was formerly Saddam's Mosul palace


RT
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:49 UTC
aerial reconnaissance
© Ministry of Defence
Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter jets have bombed a major Islamic State training center housed in a palace built by the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has said.

The Mosul palace was attacked in a joint coalition operation on Monday after "extensive surveillance" established that Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) was using it as a headquarters and training center for foreign terrorist recruits.

Two RAF Tornadoes dropped 2,000lb (900kg) Enhanced Paveway III guided bombs - the largest bombs they use - on the headquarters and a nearby security center, the MoD confirmed.

The main palace is believed to have served as accommodation and a meeting venue for the terrorist group, while outbuildings were used for command and control, training, internal security and repression.
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Rocket

North Korea launches two ballistic missiles toward Sea of Japan


RT
Tue, 02 Aug 2016 20:27 UTC
ballistic missile
© KCNA / Reuters
North Korea has launched two ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan, one of which exploded immediately after launch, according to the US. The move has been condemned by the country's southern neighbor, as well as Japan and Washington.

The projectile that was launched at about 7:50am local time (around midnight GMT), and, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew for about 1,000 km (620 miles) before landing in Japan's economic exclusion zone. US Strategic Command said it had also detected a second launch which resulted in failure.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff termed the latest launch part of a North Korean ambition to "directly and broadly attack neighboring countries and target several places in the Republic of Korea such as ports and airfields."

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said the projectile, which appeared to be a medium-range Rodong missile, landed in the Sea of Japan some 150 miles (250km) off the country's northern coast.
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Snakes in Suits

Just a coincidence: US denies $400Mln transfer to Iran linked with 4 US citizens release


Sputnik
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:31 UTC
US State Department spokesman John Kirby
© AFP 2016/ MANDEL NGAN
The US government did not transfer $400 million to Iran in exchange for the release of four US citizens, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in the day that wooden pallets stacked with euros, Swiss francs and other currencies were flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane, as the US law forbids transacting US dollars with Iran. At the same time, the United States was negotiating a prisoner exchange with Iran, raising doubts among Republicans that money had changed hands to guarantee the release as a ransom payment.

"The funds that were transferred to Iran were related solely to the settlement of a long-standing claim at the U.S.-Iran Claims Tribunal at The Hague," Kirby said, as quoted by the Fox News.

Comment: More from Marketwatch:
But U.S. officials also acknowledge that Iranian negotiators on the prisoner exchange said they wanted the cash to show they had gained something tangible.

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and a fierce foe of the Iran nuclear deal, accused President Barack Obama of paying "a $1.7 billion ransom to the ayatollahs for U.S. hostages."

"This break with longstanding U.S. policy [not to] put a price on the head of Americans, and has led Iran to continue its illegal seizures" of Americans, he said.

Since the cash shipment, the intelligence arm of the Revolutionary Guard has arrested two more Iranian-Americans. Tehran has also detained dual-nationals from France, Canada and the U.K. in recent months.


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Info

Aleppo offensive displays 'tectonic shift' in capabilities of Syrian army


Sputnik
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 14:17 UTC
Aleppo street
© AFP 2016/ GEORGE OURFALIAN
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), assisted by Russian aircraft and its local allies, has managed to cut off all militant supply routes to the city of Aleppo in a weeks-long offensive that has demonstrated how efficient and potent Damascus-led forces have become, the Lebanese newspaper As Safir asserted.

The media outlet viewed the battle for the Bani Zeid neighborhood as the key in the offensive that was launched in June to prevent radical groups, including al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, from smuggling fighters, weapons and supplies in and out of Aleppo, Syria's second largest city.

"The victory in Beni Zeid gives a real chance to resolve the crisis through political means," As Safir quoted an unnamed high-ranking Syrian official as saying.

The battle that took place on the 49th day of the Aleppo offensive lasted eight hours. The SAA is reported to have encountered almost no opposition from al-Nusra Front and other radical groups in the process.
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