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Pirates

SOTT Focus: Washington to Moscow: Please Mr Putin, stop bombing our little al-Nusra friends

Paul Mansfield
Sott.net
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 20:41 UTC
jaish
Jaish al-Islam and Jaish al-Fatah prepare for their Black Friday offensive, which killed 270 civilians last week.
Washington again asks Russia not to bomb al-Nusra, formerly known as al-Qaeda.

Al-Nusra shows its appreciation by playing a leading role in the slaughter of 270 civilians in 24 hours...

The deception of the ceasefire in Syria has become crystal clear. It has been used by opposition forces, faced with defeat, to halt advances by the Syrian Arab Army-led coalition in order to regroup, rearm and launch fresh attacks, which we are seeing now. Washington has again asked Moscow not to conduct airstrikes against al-Nusra, fearing that members of the "moderate opposition" could also be hit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reported.

On cue last Friday, illustrating how odious this proposal is, the forces opposed to Assad, al-Nusra prominent among them, killed 270 civilians in 24 hours of massive shelling across Syria.

The ceasefire has not been viewed by the opposition as a stepping stone to a full peace process. Rather, they have used it as a strategy for attempting to gain the upper hand over pro-government forces. There is no dedication to a peaceful solution to the war, just a cynical manipulation of a longed-for peace while re-arming with more powerful weapons and the supply of fighter reinforcements takes place in parallel. The government of Bashar al-Assad does not have a peace partner in Syria; they have adversaries who continue to be armed and supported by the US-led 'anti-ISIS' coalition.
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Network

Assange: Google 'directly engaged' with Clinton campaign, controls information flow


RT
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:42 UTC
Julian Assange
© Sergey Pyatakov / Sputnik
American tech giant Google is closely cooperating with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign to promote the candidate, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a televised address to an international media forum.

"Google is directly engaged with Hillary Clinton's campaign," the WikiLeaks founder claimed, as quoted by the Sputnik news agency. He added that the company used the State Department as part of "a quid pro quo."

The journalist behind the world's most well-known whistleblower website appeared via videoconference at a session of 'End of the Monopoly: The Open Information Age', part of the 'New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream international media' forum organized at the Rossiya Segodnya International Multimedia Press Center in Moscow.
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Weaponizing the crosshairs: Putin foiling NATO plans to protect Romania, Poland from Iran

Rob Slane
TheBlogMire
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 21:38 UTC
romania poland
At a recent ceremony in Deveselu, Romania, the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System (AAMDS) was declared operationally certified — a key milestone in Phase II of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). According to U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs:
This Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System represents a significant increase in the capability to defend NATO European territory from attacks originating outside the Euro-Atlantic area, and is a key milestone in the development of NATO Ballistic Missile Defense.
If you happen to live in Romania, this is of course great news, since it means that your country is now fully protected from attack by Iran. This is especially critical for the security of Romania because, as is widely known, Iran, just like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, possesses a variety of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), which can be unleashed at 45 minutes notice. What is especially pleasing to me, as an Englishman married to a Polish lady, is that Poland is also on its way to introducing the system on its territory, and the knowledge of a system protecting my in-laws from President Hassan Rouhani's burning desire to seize control of Lower Silesia is bound to make me sleep soundly.
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Info

Putin and Netanyahu hold joint press conference in Moscow


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:06 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik/ Alexei Druzhinin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference in Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Israel are "true allies" in the fight against terrorism.

"We talked about the need to jointly fight against international terrorism. Israel knows by first-hand experience what it is and fights against terrorism. In this sense, we are true allies, our countries have enough experience in the fight against extremism. We will boost contacts with Israeli partners in this sphere," Putin said.
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Binoculars

Russia responds to NATO provocations: Pilots training in Crimea - to take out missile shields?

Dmitry Litovkin, Julia Rakhmetova (translator)
Izvestia / Russia Insider
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:08 UTC
mig-29k
© Flickr/ Pavel Vanka
Russia's new Aerospace Firing Range in the Crimea will be a unique venue for year-round training of Su-24M and Tu-22M3 bomber pilots in missile and bombing weapons against waterborne and shore targets.

As the editor of the magazine Arsenal Otechestva, Victor Murakhovsky told Izvestia, a new structure will become part of the Chkalov Flight Test Center in Aktyubinsk, where new methods, systems and armaments are developed.
"The most difficult part of training is air strikes at shore and water targets from the sea, when planes operate from shore," Victor Murakhovsky told Izvestia.
"Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Air Force had been deprived of this possibility. Chauda's advantage is that it has a maximum amount of sunny days so that flights are almost on a kind of assembly line.

"Operating missile systems and armored column positions resulted from fighter-bomber combat experience during the Syrian campaign. Killing waterborne targets is the latest thing," - Murakhovsky underlined.
According to this expert, the elements not only of air battles but also against complex ground targets - mobile command posts, cruise missiles batteries at the prelaunch stage, tank and vehicle columns on the march, and also water targets - were first implemented during combat training.
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Eye 1

FBI to amend law allowing them access to personal browsing history without a warrant


RT
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 18:43 UTC
hacking
© Twitter/RT_America
The FBI hopes to amend surveillance laws as early as this year, giving the agency explicit authority to access a personal Internet browser history by simply issuing an administrative "national security letter," the Washington Post reports.

The new legislation being readied would empower the FBI to obtain "electronic communication transactional records"bypassing judges' approval with the help of a "national security letter" (NSL) which could be issued by the special agent in charge of a bureau field office, the paper says.

The FBI chief made a specific point that gaining this access through changing legislation is topping agency's priorities for the year 2016, since the inability to get the necessary data "affects our work in a very, very big and practical way," James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee in February.

The Obama administration already tried to adopt a similar amendment some six years ago, but had to retreat after fierce opposition from the IT industry and privacy advocates.
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Attention

Pepe Escobar - The Pentagon's great wall of impotence

Pepe Escobar
RT
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 19:13 UTC
Battle Ships
© Agence France-Presse
No one ever lost money betting on the Pentagon refraining from exceptionalist rhetoric.

Once again the current Pentagon supremo, certified neocon Ash Carter, did not disappoint at the Shangri-La Dialogue - the annual, must-go regional security forum in Singapore attended by top defense ministers, scholars and business executives from across Asia.

Context is key. The Shangri-La Dialogue is organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which is essentially a pro-Anglo-American think tank. And it takes place in the privileged aircraft carrier of imperial geostrategic interests in South East Asia: Singapore.

As expressed by neocon Carter, Pentagon rhetoric - faithful to its own estimation of China as the second biggest "existential threat" to the US (Russia is first) - revolves around the same themes; US military might and superiority is bound to last forever; we are the "main underwriter of Asian security"for, well, forever; and China better behave in the South China Sea - or else.

This is all embedded in the much ballyhooed but so far anemic "pivoting to Asia" advanced by the lame duck Obama administration - but bound to go on overdrive in the event Hillary Clinton becomes the next tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Real threats are predictably embedded in the rhetoric. According to Carter, if Beijing reclaims land in the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, "it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region."

What's left for China, in Pentagonese, is just to be a member of a hazy "principled security network" for Asia - which will also help protect the East against "Russia's worrying actions". Carter mentioned "principled" no less than 37 times in his speech. "Principled" cheerleaders so far include Japan, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia.

So here's an instant translation: we do a NATO in Asia; we control it; you will answer to us; and then we encircle you - and Russia - for good. If China says no, that's simple. Carter proclaimed Beijing will erect a "Great Wall of self-isolation" in the South China Sea.

If this is the best Pentagon planners have to counteract the Russia-China strategic partnership, they'd better go back to the classroom. In elementary school.
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Windsock

Is the House of Saud aligning with Russia in Syria?

Salman Rafi Sheikh
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 00:00 UTC
Saudi . Lavrov
© AFP, Kirill KudryavtsevSaudi-Russian relations just got better.
With the so-called "civil war" in Syria reaching almost its sixth year, a big pile of evidence now exists that proves the otherwise "proxy war" character of the war and the way it has been orchestrated and master-minded by those who desperately want a 'minus-Assad' Syria and, thereby a gate-way to politico-economic dominance of the Middle East. While the war is still raging in Syria, the other 'war' being fought among the diplomats in Vienna and elsewhere seems to have produced some significant results that may just turn out to be the important turning point all the actors, state and non-state, involved in it have been looking for. We are talking about the "walk out" of Jaysh al-Islam's Mohammed Alloush from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC).

Jaysh al-Islam, which is presumably a Saudi-funded outfit and was included as "Syrian opposition" in the Committee as such, has been operating in Syria as an al-Qaeda affiliate on most of the fronts (read: the Jaysh al-Islam opposition group is designated as a terrorist organization in Syria and Russia. Its leader, Mohammed Alloush, was appointed as chief negotiator for the Saudi-formed opposition delegation at the Syrian proximity talks). Its leader's "walk out" or, as some have described it, a potential "ouster" by its mentors does signify that Saudia Arabia is willing to change its course of action 'under the circumstances.' This is due to the highly positive developments taking place between the U.S. and Russia with regard to resolution of the conflict.

The Saudis and their allies in the Gulf have started to believe that a (hypothetical) deal between Russia and the U.S. may work against their interests and, as such, the only way to avoid it is to switch sides. They are already disappointed with the way the U.S. has dealt with the Syrian crisis and they are aware that the U.S. is unlikely to change its policy at this stage. The U.S.' partial willingness to coordinate strikes with Russia in Syria has only reinforced this 'fear.'

Comment: Hard to say if the ouster of one jihadist is making that big a difference, even if the Saudis are his mentors and financiers. Saudi capitulation on this point of reference is tokenism, but certainly not their whole intention. One would also be naive to believe the Saudis had a revelation and change of loyalty. It saw the US and Russia distancing themselves, and, more than likely, had to adapt to stay relevant in the game.

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Footprints

Jordanian border Syria: UK special forces on Syrian frontline


RT
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 10:08 UTC
2 guys fox hole
© Atef Hassan / Reuters
British special forces are fighting on the Syrian frontline, protecting an embattled rebel unit against ISIS attacks in the first direct military operation that is not merely training squads of fighters in neighboring Jordan.

The New Syrian Army (NSA), comprised largely of defectors from the Syrian special forces, has been picked up for retraining by the Americans and the British. It now finds itself holed up in the al-Tanf village, in the southeast. The British forces, who frequently cross over from Jordan, are currently there with the NSA, according to military commanders who spoke with The Times. Special forces have much more leeway than regular forces, as their deployment does not require approval by the British parliament.

Al-Tanf carries immense strategic importance to anyone who holds it, as it pretty much straddles the border with Jordan and Iraq. IS took it almost exactly a year ago, before the village was reclaimed by NSA fighters in Marforcesch this year. However, bloody violence is ongoing. Last month an armored IS vehicle rammed the rebel base there, killing 11 rebels and injuring a further 17. The wounded were taken care of by the Americans, who flew them to Jordan.

"They're using missiles, mortars and many suicide bombers," First Lieutenant Mahmoud al-Saleh told the newspaper, adding that attacks are being mounted at any given time of the night, without much opportunity for sleep. Britain's Ministry of Defense did not return The Times' request for comment on the direct involvement of its special forces in either Syria or Libya, where the Brits reportedly destroyed two IS suicide vehicles last week.

Earlier there was concern among some circles that Western boots on the ground in Syria would not be a good thing. After Prime Minister David Cameron's failure to garner enough support to drop bombs on the forces of President Bashar Assad two years ago, UK special forces, along with the Americans, have been deployed to assist to rebel groups fighting IS. Of course an unknown number of these rebel groups is also fighting Assad forces.

Comment: The least spelled out but most suspected reason for special forces troops to be assigned to specific foreign territories is location and access, without needed approval through the regular channels of parliament or congress. AKA: How to circumvent established lines of protocol and appear to play by the rules with troops in plain sight (boots on the ground).

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Light Sabers

Russia will soon deploy Destroyer ship that will outgun US Destroyers


Sputnik
Sun, 05 Jun 2016 16:33 UTC
russian military boat
© Courtesy photo
The Leader-class destroyers, expected to be equipped with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles and S-500 air defense systems, could soon be added to Russia's impressive arsenal of cutting edge military equipment. Russia's Ministry of Defense is currently reviewing the design and could ink the ship building contract in the near future.

"Presently, a preliminary design of Project 23560 Leader is under consideration at the Russian Ministry of Defense," Igor Ponomarev, vice president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told RIA Novosti earlier this week. After the project is given the green light, "we will develop a technical design of the ship and prepare the documents to build the ship in the timeframe set by the ministry."

No specific date has been provided on when the agreement will be signed or when the Leader-class will enter production, but the ships design could be finalized this year.
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