Several hours after the world woke up to the night of terror in Paris, French President Francois Hollande declared that the attacks were "an act of war" executed and planned by ISIL .

"Faced with war, the country must take appropriate action," he added, prompting many to say that the French leader could then invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which stipulates that an attack on one country should be treated as an attack on all NATO members.

This is not what happened.

Russia and the US have removed radioactive components from Antarctica that were left unprotected and could have been used by terrorists to craft a "dirty bomb," said Valery Lukin, deputy head of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.

"Four radioisotope thermoelectric generators and four sources of ionizing radiation, which were used in different equipment, have been removed from Antarctica within the framework of the joint Russian-American program," Lukin, who is also in charge of the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE), told TASS.

"These radioactive sources may be used by international terrorism for making a dirty bomb," he added.

According to Lukin, malefactors had previously attempted to get their hands on derelict radioactive devices, "but not in Antarctica."

Russia's Defense Ministry has released new videos of retribution attacks on Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) with strategic bombers launching smart bombs and cruise missiles. Strategic aviation was scrambled shortly after confirmation that the Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt's Sinai Desert on October 31 was downed by a terrorist bomb.

The footage was apparently recorded on the morning of November 19 and collected as technicians prepare the Russian long-range bombers to fulfill their missions:

• The Russian president takes the US missile shield extremely seriously and doesn't for a moment believe it has anything to do with Iran
• Nor is he convinced that the project is merely intended to provide corporate welfare for defense contractors
• If made to work the missile shield would give the US the ability to launch a first strike without suffering the consequences of retaliation and Putin believes gaining this ability is the goal of the project

A fascinating, if brief, verbal exchange recently took place between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1987 - 1991), Jack Matlock. The remarks occurred on October 22 during the 12th annual Valdai International Discussion Club - an event that brings together politicians, experts, public figures, and journalists from many countries to discuss a designated topic of importance to the world.

This year's focus (Oct. 19 - 22) was "Societies Between War and Peace: Overcoming the Logic of Conflict in Tomorrow's World." Putin addressed the final plenary session and then joined in the discussion.

Putin referred to "the USA's unilateral withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, which was the cornerstone for preserving the balance of power and international security." The U.S. withdrawal, he said, "has left this whole system [of nuclear weapons and strategic arms limitation] in a serious and complicated state."

More than half the cases in the military justice system involve child victims of sex assault, according to an investigation by Associated Press. This has raised questions about the transparency of military courts.

With information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, AP uncovered that out of the 1,233 inmates in US military prisons, 61 percent were convicted of sex crimes. Children were the victims in more than half of those cases, making their abusers the largest group of criminals in the US military prison system. In 2015 alone, service members victimized children in 133 of 301 sex crime convictions.

The military justice system operates independently from federal and state criminal courts. The US Constitution requires openness in civilian judiciary, which is why trials and court filings are open to the public, as a way of providing accountability.

The military judiciary is much less transparent, however, and acquiring full accounting of perpetrators' crimes and sentencing is difficult. The most that the public can generally hope to see is a brief summary of the results of the trial. Records for most federal court cases are available online via the Public Access to Court Electronic Records.

To obtain records from military trials, on the other hand, a request must be made through the Freedom of Information Act, which itself includes an exemption that allows the government to withhold records in cases where disclosure could violate personal privacy. Case information that might be relevant to the public interest includes pretrial agreements between the accused and prosecutors, which can drastically reduce sentences for criminals such as child sex offenders.

Former White House National Security Council advisor Gwenyth Todd claims that NSA will continue its mass surveillance practices despite changes to the legislation.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) will continue its mass surveillance practices despite changes to the legislation, former White House National Security Council advisor Gwenyth Todd told Sputnik

"The NSA and other western governments are going to continue collecting as much information as possible, regardless of legislation. They may have to find another source to point toward if they act upon information illegally obtained, but that is not difficult," Todd told Sputnik on Wednesday.

The world was shocked and horrified at the terror inflicted upon Paris on the night of Friday the 13th, 2015, when ISIS-affiliated militants killed well over 100 civilians in one of the world's most iconic cities. An outpouring of grief, solidarity, support and condolences came in from across the world. The tragedy, and tyranny, of such terror cannot be underestimated, but it should also be placed in its global context: namely, that the chief cause of terrorism is, in fact, terrorism, and that the chief victims are the innocent, wherever they may be.

While ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, following attacks the group undertook in previous days in both Beirut and Baghdad, it is worth remembering and reflecting on what led to the development of ISIS itself. The so-called Islamic State had its origins in the Iraq War, launched by the United States and closely supported by the United Kingdom in March of 2003. After overthrowing Saddam Hussein, a dictator once favored by the U.S., the occupying powers struggled to deal with a growing Sunni insurgency against their military occupation. In response, the U.S. helped create death squads in Iraq that further fueled a sectarian conflict between Shi'a and Sunni communities, which likewise fueled a growing regional rivalry between Shi'a Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.

The resulting civil war in Iraq killed hundreds of thousands, and the U.S. aligned itself even more tightly with Saudi Arabia, a country the West considers to be "moderate" in comparison to both Iran and Syria, yet it was the primary financier of al-Qaeda. The broader aim, in Iraq and across the Middle East, was to support the regional hegemony of the West's allies - Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab dictatorships - against their chief rivals, Iran and Syria. If it meant supporting the countries that supported al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, so be it.

After all, it has never been much of a secret that the Saudis and their Gulf neighbors were the major financial backers of global terrorists; even then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted as much in a memo leaked by Wikileaks. Nor was it a secret that Saudi Arabia was responsible for more destabilization and terrorism inside Iraq than Iran, which nonetheless received most of the blame.

The Saudis and the Gulf dictatorships are U.S. and Western allies, with immense oil riches that have made them some of the largest investors and shareholders in Western banks and corporations. Iran and Syria, on the other hand, are not.

Al-Qaeda did not exist inside Iraq until after the U.S. invasion and occupation. Over the years, since the war and occupation began, the group has undergone a number of name changes and transitions. One such evolution of the group is the al-Nusra front. And another is now known as the Islamic State, or ISIS.

A Republican senator from Arkansas has submitted a bill that would extend the NSA's ability to collect Americans' phone metadata by more than a year. Tom Cotton insisted the last week's terror attacks in Paris proved the value of such spying activities.

Cotton introduced his bill, titled the Liberty Through Strength Act, on Tuesday, which proposes postponing the "transition timeline in the USA FREEDOM Act until after January 31, 2017."


"If we take anything from the Paris attacks, it should be that vigilance and safety go hand-in-hand," Cotton said in a statement."Now is not the time to sacrifice our national security for political talking points. We should allow the Intelligence Community to do their job and provide them with the tools they need to keep us safe."

Around 500 fuel tanker vehicles transporting illegal oil from Syria to Iraq for processing have been destroyed by Russia's Air Forces, the General Staff said. "In recent years, Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other extremist groups have organized the operations of the so-called 'pipeline on wheels' on the territories they control," Russian General Staff spokesman Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov said.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel have been delivered to Iraq for processing by trucks and the revenue generated from these illegal exports is the one of the terrorists' main sources of funding, he said. The spokesman displayed images showing convoys comprised of hundreds of vehicles transporting oil to back up his assertion.


"In just the first few days, our aviation has destroyed 500 fuel tanker trucks, which greatly reduced illegal oil export capabilities of the militants and, accordingly, their income from oil smuggling," Kartapolov stressed. The spokesman also said that the Russian military has begun developing proposals for joint military action with the French Navy against the terrorists in accordance with an order by President Vladimir Putin. "This joint work will begin after the arrival of aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Syrian shores," Kartapolov explained.

Russia has been bombing Islamic State and other terror groups in Syria since September 30 at the official request of country's president, Bashar Assad. On Tuesday, Russia's fleet of 25 long-range bombers joined Su-34, Su-25, and Su-24M warplanes conducting operations in Syria to double the number of airstrikes against the militants.

Washington and its French vassal have refined how they conduct their false flag operations. With the Charlie Hebdo operation, they knew to immediately set the story in stone in order to avoid any questions from the print and TV media and in order to use the set story to take the place of an investigation.

The set story made it unnecessary to explain the mysterious "suicide" of one of the main police investigators while engaged in the investigation of the event. The set story also made it unnecessary to explain why it was necessary to kill rather than capture the alleged perpetrators, or to explain how the French authorities could be so wrong about the alleged get-away-driver but not about the two gunmen. There has been no explanation why the authorities believed there was a get-away-driver, and no such driver has been captured or killed. Indeed, there are many unanswered questions of no interest to any media except the alternative Internet media.

What the US and France learned from the Charlie Hebdo skepticism on the Internet is to keep the story flowing. Charlie Hebdo involved two scenes of violence, and the connection between the two acts of terrorism was vague. This time there were several scenes of violence, and they were better connected in the story.

More importantly, the story was followed quickly by more drama, such as the pursuit of a suspected perpetrator into Belgium, a French bombing attack on the Islamic State, a French aircraft carrier sent to the Middle East, a declaration of war by the French President against ISIL, and speculation that Hollande, pressured by Washington, will invoke NATO's Article V, which will pull NATO into an invasion of the Islamic State. By superceding each event with a new one, the public's attention is shifted away from the attack itself and the interests served by the attack. Already the attack itself is old news. The public's attention has been led elsewhere. How soon will NATO have boots on the ground?