Puppet MastersS


MIB

'We have lost intelligence!' CIA Director Pompeo whines about Russians and Iranians 'making our lives difficult'

Russian Sukhoi-30 aircraft
© Ministry of defence of the Russian Federation / Sputnik
CIA Director Mike Pompeo has downplayed Russia's role in the Syrian operation, saying there is only "the most minimal evidence" that Russia is pursuing a serious strategy there.

US-Russian relations cannot be unambiguously characterized, the US intelligence chief said at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday. While stating that the landscape in Syria has "fundamentally changed" since Russia entered into the country, he said that its interests are not the same as America's.

"We certainly are trying to find places where we can work alongside the Russians, but we don't have the same set of interest [sic] there. So from intelligence perspective [sic], we're staring at the places we can find to achieve American outcomes in Syria - the things in our country's best interest and not in theirs," Pompeo told New York Times columnist Bret Stephens at the forum in Aspen, Colorado.

Comment: That new strategy would be: 'Iran is no longer compliant, so, uhm, we'll just have to live with it.'


Target

Russian naval doctrine: US 'global strike' concept a direct threat while nuclear arms are good deterrent

US navy ships
© Stoyan Nenov / Reuters
The quest for global domination in the world's oceans, as well as the global strike concept of the US and its allies, puts international stability at risk and poses a direct military threat to Russia, the country's new naval doctrine states.

Moscow's demonstration that it is prepared to use force, including non-strategic nuclear weaponry, is an efficient way to deter this threat, the document says.

One of the main challenges faced by Russia is the "strive of a number of states, mainly the US and its allies, for domination in the World Ocean, including the Arctic region, as well as for establishing overwhelming superiority of their naval forces," according to "the state policy of the Russian Federation in the field of naval activities for the period up to 2030," as ratified by a Decree of the President of Russia on Thursday.

The new naval doctrine openly names the states which represent a direct military threat to Russia, in contrast to the now obsolete 2020 document.

Map

Offensive on Tal Afar: Iraq's new de facto Daesh 'statelet'

Iraqi fighters
© AFP 2017/ AHMAD AL-RUBAYE
Many perilous obstacles lie in the path to this city, with roads leading up to it scattered with improvised explosive devices and snipers ready to take out anyone appearing within their sight.

This is Tal Afar, one of the last remaining, major Daesh (outlawed in Russia) strongholds in Iraq. In January 2014, about six months before the Islamic State proclaimed its caliphate in Iraq, this area was close to becoming a separate administrative division. Within just a short period of time, the city has become the most powerful extremist stronghold in Iraq.

Radar

Secrecy around drone assassination of British citizens in Syria challenged in court

British drone aircraft
© Global Look Press
The UK government's refusal to release key advice on the 2015 drone killing of two British citizens in Syria will be challenged in court on Thursday.

Campaigners have questioned the government's line that the killing by drone strike of British jihadists Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin was legal.

Rights Watch UK, the NGO demanding to see the advice from government lawyer's upon which the decision to kill the pair was made, have also accused the government of using a US-style drone kill list.

The civil liberties group says the disclosure of the advice is in the public interest, while the Cabinet Office and the attorney-general have rejected this claim, arguing the advice must remain secret because it involves information about intelligence agencies.

Info

'Unintended consequences': US corporations lobby against anti-Russia sanctions

US Congress building
© Michael Weber / Global Look Press
A wide range of American conglomerates, including oil, energy, banking, aerospace, auto and heavy manufacturing enterprises have jointly started a lobbying campaign against the new round of sanctions against Russia passed by the US Senate, CNN reports.

BP, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Boeing and Citigroup, MasterCard and Visa are reportedly among the companies raising concerns the punitive measures will ultimately harm their businesses, rather than the Kremlin.

Ford, Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble, International Paper, Caterpillar, and Cummins have reportedly warned the measure could impact their businesses as well.

The new bill, aimed at punishing Russia for alleged meddling in the US presidential election, was approved last month. The measures target already sanctioned Russian banks and energy sector, limiting the financing period for them to 14 and 30 days respectively.

Megaphone

Secretive CIA Syria program details exposed by murder of 3 Green Berets at Jordanian air base

murdered green berets Jordan
Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, of Kirksville, Missouri; Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe, 30, of Tucson, Arizona; and Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Texas
"The Jordanian government had a strong incentive to gloss over the murders of the three Green Berets. Likewise, the CIA was scared of potential blowback and the exposing of their covert program," says investigative journalist Jack Murphy, himself an Army special forces veteran.

A premeditated green-on-blue attack in Jordan outside of King Faisal Air Base (at al-Jafr in Southern Jordan) late last year resulted in the deaths of three elite US Green Berets in what the media initially dubbed a mere unfortunate gate incident and what the Jordanian government dismissed as a "a tragic accident devoid of any terrorist motives". But the whole event and subsequent attempts at cover-up just as Obama was leaving office enraged both the families of the slain and the US special forces community; and it further threatened to blow wide open the CIA's illegal Syrian regime change operation, called Timber Sycamore, which involved American special ops soldiers being tasked with training so-called "moderate" Syrian rebels in Jordan and Turkey as part of an inter-agency program.

As details of the court case involving the shooter continue to emerge this week, the media continues to misreport the true nature of the what the US special forces personnel were doing in Jordan in the first place, and how a CIA secret program put them at risk.

On Monday (July 17) a Jordanian military court sentenced the attacker, a Jordanian soldier named Marik al-Tuwayha, to life in prison with hard labor for the premeditated murder of Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, of Kirksville, Missouri; Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe, 30, of Tucson, Arizona; and Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Texas. In Jordan a "life sentence" can mean the possibility of being set free after serving 20 years for good behavior.

Evil Rays

Propaganda alert: U.S. State Department claims that Iran is 'foremost state sponsor of terrorism'

Teheran mural
Iran continued to be the "foremost state sponsor of terrorism" in 2016, with groups supported by the country maintaining their ability to threaten the United States and its allies, a new report by the U.S. State Department says.

The report released on July 19 also noted that the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which it blamed for multiple attacks and "atrocities," was rapidly losing ground in Iraq and Syria, but it warned that fighters returning home could pose risks for countries in Central Asia and the Balkans.

The Country Reports on Terrorism has been issued annually since 2004 under a mandate that requires the State Department to provide Congress with regular updates on terrorism throughout the world.

The report took aim at Iran in a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and the United States, which has long accused Iran of sponsoring international terrorism and destabilizing the region. Iran has also been targeted by U.S. sanctions over its weapons programs and human rights violations.


Comment: Yes, even though Iran has complied with an internationally brokered nuclear arms agreement, how dare it have a strong enough military force to repel attacks from countries like, well, the U.S.!


Snakes in Suits

Best of the Web: James Corbett: Our Leaders Are Psychopaths - An Introduction to Political Ponerology (VIDEO)

our leaders are psychopaths
They walk among us. On the outside they're just like you and me, but on the inside they are unfeeling automatons who care only for themselves. They are the psychopaths, and they are in control of our governments, our corporations, our military and all of the positions of power. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we delve into Political Ponerology, a diagnosis of our politicians and a brief look at the bigger picture.

NOTE: This is a visualization of Episode 090 of The Corbett Report podcast, first released on June 14, 2009.



Comment: Political Ponerology is a seminal book that describes what is quite probably THE great problem of our time.


Info

Hungary sides with Poland in EU row, tells Brussels to back off

Hungarian Parliament, Danube, Budapest
© Günter Flegar / Global Look PressHungarian Parliament, Danube, Budapest.
The Hungarian foreign ministry has declared its support for Poland which is under fire from the European Commission over its domestic judicial reforms.

"We stand by Poland, and we call on the European Commission not to overstep its authority," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement Thursday as quoted by Reuters.

Budapest pointed out that Brussels should not "act like a political body" and criticized it for attempting to interfere in the domestic affairs of other states.

Chess

'Russia and China responding jointly to the threat of American imperialism'

Chinese warship
© Edgar Su / Reuters
Washington refuses to wake up to the new reality of a multipolar world; China and Russia are no longer willing to accept the American writ, those days are over, political commentator John Wight told RT.

The British Royal Navy scrambled to shadow three Chinese warships passing through UK waters heading to war games with Russia in the Baltic Sea.

The Chinese flotilla had been conducting exercises in the Mediterranean, before moving round Europe.

On entering the North Sea, Dutch vessels escorted them further on their journey.

Beijing's ships will join a few Russian ones to take part in joint exercises on Friday.