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New US commander in Afghanistan finally admits Taliban cannot be defeated after 17 years of useless war


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 16:33 UTC
Scott Miller
© Reuters / Mohammad Ismail
Commander of Resolute Support forces and command of NATO forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Army General Scott Miller
The Afghanistan war cannot be won militarily and peace will only be achieved through a political resolution with the Taliban, the newly-appointed American general in charge of US and NATO operations has conceded.

In his first interview since taking command of NATO's Resolute Support mission in September, Gen. Austin Scott Miller provided NBC News with a surprisingly candid assessment of the seemingly never-ending conflict, which began with the US invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001.

"This is not going to be won militarily. This is going to a political solution," Miller said.

He mused that the Taliban is also tired of fighting and may be interested in starting to "work through the political piece" of the 17-year-old war.

Comment: Trump has been consistent in his criticism of the costly and insane decisions of US policymakers to start useless wars in foreign nations over the past 17 years. So Miller's admission is not just a coincidence. He's only saying what has been obvious from day one, but which can only now be said because the US has a president that is somewhat sane when it comes to foreign interventions. The stated justification for going to war in Afghanistan - because Bin Laden - was a lie. No mention of drug trade profits or the benefits of keeping the Middle East and Central Asia destabilized. But those goals only make sense to hardcore ideologues. To any normal human, nothing good has come out of them. They've wasted trillions of dollars and destroyed millions of lives. It's time to go home, America, and stay there.

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Whistle

Israel lies again? German media question claim of new Israeli strikes on Syria after S-300 delivery


Sputnik
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 16:13 UTC
russian air defense
© Russian Defense Ministry
This week, a senior Israeli official claimed that the Israeli military has conducted attacks in Syria after the September 17 incident which led to the accidental destruction of a Russian reconnaissance aircraft by Syrian air defenses over the Mediterranean.

The Israeli claim about conducting military operations in Syria after the destruction of the Russian Il-20, which prompted the Russian military to deliver a modernized export version of its S-300 air defense system to Syria, don't sound truthful, according to Germany's Contra Magazin.

"Israel has insisted that the S-300s wouldn't interfere with its ability to attack Syria, but in the space of over a month since then, not a single media report on such an attack has been made. However, on Monday, Israel said that it has attacked Syria since September 17, and did so coordinating with Russia," the publication wrote.

"The claim," according to Contra Magazin, "is obviously intended to strengthen Israel's resolve to attack at will, especially after the lack of such attacks has raised many doubts."

In any case, the Monday claim, particularly given the lack of confirmed Israeli attacks, "makes their absence all the more obvious," Contra noted.

Comment: Israel has lied so much for so long they're used to just saying whatever they want, even if it bears no resemblance to reality and can be easily debunked. After all, if criticisms get too vocal, they can always just play identity politics and accuse their critics of anti-Semitism.

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Monkey Wrench

Stuxnet 2.0: New generation of likely US-Israeli malware virus hits Iran


Sputnik
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 22:11 UTC
Stuxnet 2.0 virus Iran
© Flickr / Vishvendra Rai
The head of Iran's civil defense agency announced on Sunday that a new version of the Stuxnet virus, believed to be a US-Israeli creation, had been found by Iranian authorities. The announcement came amid news that President Hassan Rouhani's phone had been bugged and a call for increased defenses to "confront infiltration."

"Recently we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet which consisted of several parts... and was trying to enter our systems," announced Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iranian civil defense, Reuters reported. He gave no further details, such as whom the Iranian government believes to be behind the attack or how much damage it had caused.

The original Stuxnet virus targeted nuclear centrifuges at Iran's Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility in June 2009, when it caused about 20 percent of the facility's centrifuges to spin out of control until they broke. It's widely believed to have been a joint creation by the US and Israel.

Comment: Previously:

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Attention

Search comparisons show Google throttling traffic to Candace Owens's Blexit page


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:56 UTC
Blexit logo
© Blexit.com
Searching "Blexit" on Google will get you criticism, controversy, explainers, tweets and videos - but not the actual page for the African-American movement critical of Democrats, not on the front page anyway. Is this by design?

"Blexit" is the brainchild of activist Candace Owens, who is arguing that African-Americans are being taken for granted by Democrats and that they can achieve more by supporting President Donald Trump.

If you search for it on Google, however, the actual website of the movement - Blexit.com - does not show up on the first page of results at all. Moreover, the top search results are news stories bashing Blexit and focusing on Owens' apology to rapper Kanye West over the claim he had designed their logo and merchandise.

Comment:



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Dollars

'Stealth politics': Most US billionaires silently push policies bad for most Americans - study


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 15:00 UTC
green piggy bank
© Reuters / Jo Yong-Hak
A study of the 100 wealthiest Americans has found that most billionaires resemble the conservative Koch brothers more than the Bill Gates-style philanthropic tycoons, but choose to stay silent and let their wallets do the talking.

A piece published by the Guardian, Northwestern University professors Benjamin I. Page, Jason Seawright, and Matthew J. Lacombe deliver the findings of an exhaustive study of "everything that the 100 wealthiest US billionaires have said or done, over a 10-year period, concerning several major issues of public policy."
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Card - MC

Russia's alternative to SWIFT payment system poised to eclipse the original - MP


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:51 UTC
Yuri Gagarin monument
© Reuters / Maxim Shemetov
Steam rises from chimneys of a heating power plant near a monument of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in Moscow
Russia's money transfer system, developed as an alternative to SWIFT is now more popular than the global network, said Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Russian parliamentary committee on financial markets.

He explained that Moscow is already engaged in talks with Chinese, Turkish and Iranian financial regulators on integrating its System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) with financial messaging systems of those countries.
"The number of users of our internal financial messages' transfer system is now greater than that of those using SWIFT. We're already holding talks with China, Iran and Turkey, along with several other countries, on linking our system with their systems," Aksakov said.

"They need to be properly integrated with each other in order to avoid any problems with using the countries' internal financial messaging systems."
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Passport

Rock-throwing migrants may be shot as violent invaders: 'We'll consider that a firearm' - Trump


RT
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:31 UTC
migrants border gate mexico
© Reuters / Ueslei Marcelino
Migrants push a fence to make their way into Mexico
The US will adopt harsh, Israeli-style tactics and will treat migrants at the Mexican border as armed and dangerous invaders if they throw rocks at US law enforcement, Donald Trump has stressed amid a mass military deployment.

While the US commander in chief "hopes" the US military will not have to engage the so-called 'migrant caravans' with firearms once they reach the US border, Trump stated that pelting the American forces with rocks will not be tolerated.

"It's the military. I hope there won't be that. But I will tell you this: Anybody throwing stones, rocks, like they did to Mexico and the Mexican military, Mexican police - where they badly hurt police and soldiers of Mexico - we will consider that a firearm, because there is not much difference if you get hit in the face with a rock," Trump said to reporters.

Comment: The migrant groups are attempting to force their way into a country that doesn't belong to them, whereas the Palestinians seek to return to land that originally belonged to them before being expelled by the invading Zionists.

Big difference.

That being said, disproportionate response is never the answer. The military will be there as an aid to the Border Patrol. They will not be in charge.

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Gold Bar

Moscow's de-dollarization drive continues - Russian gold reserves smash Soviet-era record


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 14:10 UTC
gold bars
The Central Bank of Russia bought over 92 tons of gold in the three months to the end of September breaking the Soviet peak of 2000 tons in gold reserves seen in 1941, according to a new report by the World Gold Council (WGC).

Russia reportedly purchased more gold than any other country in the world, followed by Turkey, Kazakhstan, and India, which bought 18.5 tons, 13.4 tons and 13.7 tons respectively.

That marks the highest quarterly net purchase since 1993, when the WGC started tracking the country's data. Russia's gold stockpile now accounts for 17 percent of the country's overall foreign exchange reserves.

Comment: Wise countries are following the Russian lead in its move away from the dollar. Wiser ones are shoring up their currency with hard assets.

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Chess

Arron Banks faces criminal investigation for 'mysterious' Brexit funds

Peter Walker & Jim Waterson
The Guardian
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:33 UTC
Arron Banks
© Jonathan Brady/PA
The National Crime Agency is to investigate allegations of multiple criminal offences by Arron Banks and his unofficial leave campaign in the Brexit referendum, prompting calls from some MPs for the process of departing the European Union to be suspended.

The NCA would look into suspicions that a "number of criminal offences may have been committed", the Electoral Commission said in a statement, saying there were reasonable grounds to suspect Banks was "not the true source" of £8m in funding to the Leave.EU campaign.

The commission said the cases involve Banks, the insurance millionaire who heavily backed leave; Elizabeth Bilney, one of his key associates; Leave.EU itself; the company used to finance it; and "other associated companies and individuals".

Comment: Also see: Brexit: An £8.4m donation of unclear origin to the Leave campaign may have changed UK history
Don't all political campaigns spend millions in advertising and other modern social media techniques? Does that somehow invalidate the result of the referendum? Does it put democracy at risk? Or is it only questionable when people vote the 'wrong' way?

Whether you think Brexit is a good idea or not, you can see where the revelation above is going. Together with the recent food-supply hysteria, it appears that the objective is to discredit Brexit and promote a second referendum - one which, they hope, will result in the 'right' choice this time.

In the meantime, don't be surprised if the blame of Brexit is once again placed squarely on Russia. That's where the 'unknown origin' of Arron Banks' donation and the allegations about social media 'dark ads' might be headed. Blaming Russia worked to fuel a spurious narrative in the US, so why not in the UK also?


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Info

Turkish court rules US pastor Andrew Brunson had links with Gulen terrorist movement


Sputnik
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 11:33 UTC
Andrew Brunson
© REUTERS / Umit Bektas
Andrew Brunson
A Turkish court ruled that US pastor Andrew Brunson's statements of not having links to Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement, referred to by Ankara as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), are groundless, the Anadolu news agency reported Thursday citing the ruling.

"The defendant claimed that he didn't contact with representatives of Gulen's movement and other criminal organizations as it contradicts his religious views... But in reality, as confirmed by witnesses, Brunson was in contact not only with FETO's 'Imam' in the Aegean region Bekir Baz, but also with his assistant Murat Safa, who had a direct access to the leader of the terrorist movement," the ruling reads as quoted by the local media.

According to the court, Brunson also provided support to FETO, while Gulen's supporters, including Baz, helped the pastor solve his problems.
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