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Moscow says they knows who staged attacks on Khmeimim Airbase and it wasn't Turkey


RT
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 20:06 UTC
Khmeimim Airbase
© Dmitriy Vinogradov / Sputnik
Russian Khmeimim Airbase in Syria’s Latakia Province.
Recent attacks on Russia's Khmeimim Airbase in Syria were a provocation aimed at undermining the country's relations with its partners Turkey and Iran and the peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis, Vladimir Putin said.

"Those were provocations aimed at disrupting the earlier agreements, in the first place. Secondly, it was about our relations with our partners - Turkey and Iran. It was also an attempt to destroy those relations," the Russian President said during a meeting with the editors-in-chief of Russian papers and news agencies in Moscow. "We have a perfect understanding of that and will act in solidarity."

"There were provocateurs there, but they were not Turks," Putin said, refuting earlier reports saying the attacks on the Russian airbase were carried out by Turkoman units backed by Ankara. "We know who they are. We know whom and how much they paid for these provocations," Putin said, without naming the organizers of the attacks.

Russian military sites in Syria were targeted in two major attacks in the past two weeks, one on New Year's Eve and another on January 6. The first assault, reportedly carried out by an infiltration squad armed with mortars, resulted in two Russian servicemen being killed and damage to warplanes at Khmeimim Airbase. The second involved 13 drones armed with bomblets, which were all either shot down or forced to land via means of electronic warfare by Russian forces.

Comment: Russia and Turkey have not named who they blame...why not?
See also: 2 Russian military personnel were victims in shelling of Khmeimim air base, Syria

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Dollar

First-ever Pentagon audit, cost to soar beyond $900M


RT
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 00:37 UTC
Pentagon
© US Army
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is prepared to spend more than $900 million on its first ever financial audit. The Defense Department comptroller insists the high price is justified, because accurate figures will strengthen future decision making.

The Pentagon has announced the audit will cost $367 million in Fiscal Year 2018. This will cover fees for independent public accounting firms at a cost of $181 million as well as infrastructure to support the audits costing $186 million. This money will help fund the roughly 1,200 auditors who will support the 24 individual audits that make up the overall project, according to Defense News.

In addition to these costs, the Pentagon's comptroller, David Norquist, says the first steps of the audit are already underway. He estimated that the US Defense Department will also spend around $551 million to fix problems identified by the outside auditors. This will bring the total amount of money spent by the Pentagon to $918 million.


Comment: Really? First ever financial audit? Will there be a 'missing trillions' line item? It's obvious big money has gone into programs for which the public has no knowledge, that will never be divulged and therefore never come to accountability.

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Heart - Black

US de facto occupies part of Syria, hinders humanitarian aid


RT
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 02:59 UTC
Syrian Camp
© AFP/Al Bawaba
Al-Rukban camp on Jordan-Syrian border
All limitations on the access of humanitarian convoys to the Rukban refugee camp in the Al-Tanf area of Syria - which is de facto occupied by US forces - must be lifted, Russia's Foreign Ministry has said.

Moscow has firmly emphasized "the need to respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Syria in the implementation of humanitarian deliveries and the observance of international humanitarian law."

Rukban camp is located in the 55-kilometer area around Al-Tanf that is "de facto occupied by the US armed forces," with access to the district denied to the country's lawful authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The training of militants from illegal Syrian armed groups continues at the US strongholds in the area," it added.

Comment: The US is fighting wars 'for the people', right?

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Propaganda

US Senate releases junk 'report' claiming Sputnik is 'disinformation'


Sputnik
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 02:27 UTC
Sputnik
© Sputnik
Bad news for anyone out there expecting integrity and honesty from Capitol Hill: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's new report, "Putin's Asymmetric Assault on Democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for US National Security," distorts the truth about Sputnik's editorial practices.

The 206-page report was compiled by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and is prefaced with a letter of transmittal by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Obviously there is far too much to cover in a single article, especially since a single paragraph - one focusing on the use of Sputnik as a "disinformation platform" - provides more than enough fodder for discussion.

"Sputnik also reportedly orders its foreign journalists to pursue discredited conspiracy theories," the report claims. A bold statement, to be sure - one that surely would not be made without decisive evidence, right? Right?
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Bizarro Earth

Sheer hatred: Israel's long-standing and deliberate policy of terrorizing Palestinian children

Kamel Hawwash
Middle East Eye
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 08:51 UTC
Palestinian girl holds a placard
© AFP
A Palestinian girl holds a placard showing a picture of a child crying during a demonstration in support of the children of the Gaza Strip in July 2014 in the West Bank northern city of Nablus
Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion once said about the Palestinians: 'The old will die and the young will forget.' How wrong was he about the Palestinian people

At the start of the second intifada in 2000, an iconic image emerged of Muhammad al-Durra, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, as he was being shielded from Israeli fire by his father who begged the soldiers to stop shooting. The bullets, however, continued and al-Durra died from the wounds he sustained.

Almost a month later, another image of a Palestinian child, caught in the conflict, went viral.

Fares Odeh, 14, was caught on camera fearlessly throwing stones at an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip. Odeh was killed by Israeli forces on 8 November that same year.

Comment: See: Watch 2016 Abby Martin Interview With Palestinian Resistance Teenager Ahed Tamimi (VIDEO)

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Light Sabers

Analysts says drones that attacked Russian bases in Syria resemble US military UAVs


Sputnik
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 20:10 UTC
drone attack Syria Russia
© Russian Defense Ministry
A drone used to attack Russian military facilities in Syria
In an interview with Sputnik, Turkish military analysts commented on the drones recently launched by terrorists at the Russian military facilities in Hmeymim and Tartus in Syria. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the technology used in those drones could only be obtained from a technologically advanced country.

The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in the attacks on Russia's facilities in Syria bear a resemblance to certain types of equipment used by the US military, according to Erdoğan Karakuş, a military analyst and retired Lt. Gen. of the Turkish Air Force.

Saying that regular drones are usually capable of carrying and dropping only low-yield explosives, the analyst told Sputnik Turkey, "UAVs which are capable of dropping bombs and projectiles used in airplane strikes are in service with the US military. A regular drone can carry an explosive device that can utterly destroy a vehicle of terrorists. However, for these attacks, much more powerful drones were used."
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TV

Democrat report 'yet another tool to sell Russian collusion delusion'


RT
Thu, 11 Jan 2018 14:52 UTC
Senator Ben Cardin and Senator Bob Corker.
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Senator Ben Cardin and Senator Bob Corker.
The US Foreign Relations Committee report on alleged Russian meddling doesn't reflect the will of the American people or Congress, and merely tries to peddle an anti-Russian narrative, political analyst Charles Ortel told RT.

Democrats in the US are calling for radical action against alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Senators on Wednesday published a 206-page report for the Foreign Relations Committee, with proposals including the creation of a new inter-agency cell, modeled on the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC).

The senators propose spending more than $250 million on building institutions in Europe and Eurasia to counter alleged Russian meddling. The report also suggests preemptive sanctions against so-called "State Hybrid Threat Actors". In addition, it recommends that social media companies be required to track down propaganda and make public all income from political ads.
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Eagle

US military intelligence and its use of "creative destruction" worldwide

Andrew Korybko
Oriental Review
Wed, 10 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Military Intelligence
It doesn't matter whether it's the US' brand of "democracy" for export or the national-specific model of government that strengthens non-Western states, the theoretical concept behind this system has been weaponized by military intelligence agencies worldwide in a back-and-forth competition to change or retain the "deep state" status quo.

Most people are familiar with US' clandestine and militant export of "democracy" across the globe in order to remove uncompliant leaders and promote its enduring geostrategic interest to retain its own unipolar hegemony, but comparatively fewer have ever thought about how this very same system is actually a method of control no matter what iteration it ultimately takes. This isn't a judgement but a fact - democracy is really a tool that's expertly wielded by its "deep state" practitioners in order to retain the status quo in their states.

Whether this is "good" or "bad" depends on one's perspective - most people in the Alternative-Media Community would argue that it's the former so long as the country in question is protecting their independent policies from outside (US/Western/Gulf) interference and striving to construct the Multipolar World Order, while the Mainstream Media would of course see this as the latter by derogatorily framing it as a "managed democracy" or at worst a "dictatorship'. Along the same token, the Alternative-Media Community believes that the US is a fake democracy and practices an insincere iteration of this ideology, while the Mainstream Media extols it as the best model in the world.

Comment: Arguably, the type of "Democratization" that the author is mostly discussing here is bad - from the point of view of anyone who is subject to its real intentions; to serve US Deep State interests. Case in point:

'Ukraine on Fire': How US, Not Russia, Destroyed Ukraine - Oliver Stone Documentary Finally Available (VIDEO)

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Airplane

Chunk of metal falls off Japanese PM's plane during flight (VIDEO)


RT
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 19:24 UTC
Plane
© Brendan Smialowski / AFP
One of the Boeing 747s used by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
An investigation has been launched after an access panel on the wing of a Boeing 747 used by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fell off during flight.

Japan's Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) confirmed the incident happened during a flight from Tokyo to Hokkaido, Thursday. The part, which is about the size of a laptop computer and provides access to an area connecting the engines to the right wing of the plane, has not yet been found.

"There was no sign of it on the runways so it's going to be very difficult to locate," a spokesman for the ASDF said in a statement, cited by Reuters. ANN News in Japan broadcast images of the plane and its missing part on Thursday.

Two jumbo jets carrying Abe and other government officials set off from Tokyo on Friday ahead of a six-day trip to Eastern Europe. The Japanese PM was reportedly not aboard the plane that lost its panel.
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USA

The American Dream has become the American Scheme: The rich get richer and the poor go to jail

John W. Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:09 UTC
"It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones." ― Nelson Mandela
rich vs poor
This is the tale of two Americas, where the rich get richer and the poor go to jail.

Aided and abetted by the likes of Attorney General Jeff Sessions-a man who wouldn't recognize the Constitution if it smacked him in the face-the American dream has become the American scheme: the rich are getting richer and more powerful, while anyone who doesn't belong to the power elite gets poorer and more powerless to do anything about the nation's steady slide towards fascism, authoritarianism and a profit-driven police state.

Not content to merely pander to law enforcement and add to its military largesse with weaponry and equipment designed for war, Sessions has made a concerted effort to expand the police state's power to search, strip, seize, raid, steal from, arrest and jail Americans for any infraction, no matter how insignificant.
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