Puppet MastersS


Bomb

Egypt's Interior Minister Survives Attack

Mohammed Ibrahim
© UnknownEgypt Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim
Egyptian security officials said that the country's interior minister survived an assassination attempt on Thursday after an explosive device detonated near his convoy. The powerful explosion, which damaged buildings and left cars burning on a residential street, marked a sharp escalation of the violence in Egypt's two-month old political crisis.

Interior Ministry officials said that a preliminary investigation found that the explosion came from a motorcycle laden with at last three improvised explosive devices that were detonated by remote control. The explosion occurred soon after the minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, left his house on Thursday morning in a convoy of cars. At least six people, including five of the minister's guards, were injured, officials said.

Mr. Ibrahim, who was unharmed, avoided the explosion by "seconds," an Interior Ministry official said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion.

Crusader

Liar in chief Obama calls on world to fight Syria 'barbarism'

Medieval Obama
© Unknown
President Obama yesterday urged the international community to support his plan for military intervention in Syria or face a fatal undermining of its credibility.

After declaring that Syria's use of chemical weapons on its population demanded a response from America and the world, Mr Obama flies into a G20 meeting in Russia today to try to win the support of world leaders for a "limited and proportionate" strike against Damascus.

He told them to unite in the face of Syrian "barbarism" and declared that the world, not him, had set a red line on the use of chemical weapons.

The US Congress moved last night towards voting on a resolution giving the President a 90-day period in which to conduct air attacks on Syria.


Footprints

Chemical weapons sent from Turkey to Syria: Former Turkish provincial official

 Mohamad Gunes
© Press TV
A former member of a city council in the Turkish province of Hatay says the chemical weapons used in last month's attack in Syria were transported from Turkey, Press TV reports.

"Four months ago, Turkish security forces found a two-kilogram cylinder with sarin gas after searching the homes of Syrian militants from the al-Qaeda and al-Nusra. They are using our borders to take the gas into Syria,"
Mohamad Gunes said.

"The Syrian president has no reason to kill his own people," he added.

People in the southern province, which borders Syria, said the weapons were used by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militants and not the Syrian government.
"America and Israel had al-Qaeda use chemical weapons in order to push us into war; none of us wants war here. In the history of Hatay, we all lived peacefully side by side, now there is Mossad, CIA and al-Qaeda all over the place. We are worried that they might use chemical weapons against us," said Farid Mainy, a Hatay resident and an activist.

Butterfly

'Hands off': Syrians form human shields outside possible US strike targets


As the US Congress inches closer to a decision on a military strike on Syria, citing allegations that Assad forces used chemical weapons against the civilian population, activists in Damascus are stepping up their protest against possible attacks.

Damascene activists protesting possible US strikes on Syria set up a camp at the foot of Qasioun Mountain just outside the capital on Tuesday.

Qasioun Mountain, a symbol of Damascus and Syria, is home to many security and military buildings and institutions and thus is expected to be one of the targets for the airstrikes. Protesters rallying beside the place called themselves a "human shield" and hold banners featuring slogans such as "No more American bombing democracy" and "Hands off Syria".

"We are here to express our loyalty to our country in the face of American threats. We don't want what they did in Iraq over chemical weapons claims to be done in our country," one of the rally participants told RT.

Light Sabers

Swedes protest US plans for war on Syria amid Obama visit

Obama in Stockholm
© UnknownA protester proudly shows a poster depicting U.S. President Barack Obama as a terrorist during a pro-Assad demonstration in Stockholm during Obama's visit to the Swedish capital.
Thousands of protesters have held a demonstration in Sweden's capital to protest against the US's warmongering policies vis-à-vis Syria as US President Barack Obama arrived in the European country.

Angry demonstrators took to the streets of Stockholm on Wednesday to express opposition to calls by the Obama administration for a military strike on Syria.

The protesters carried banners that read, "No to Big Brother Obama," "No to war on Syria," and "Hands off Snowden," in a reference to American whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked two top secret spying programs run by the US government.

"Send Obama away. We don't want Obama to come to Sweden because we see him as a war criminal," a protester said.

Wreath

Cannon fodder: Afghan soldier casualty rate comparable to America's losses in Vietnam War - US general

Afghan soldiers
© AFP Photo / Aref Karimi
Approximately 50 to 100 Afghan soldiers are killed in battle per week, a top US general said Wednesday. That rate that is comparable to the number of American service members who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.

"The Afghan security forces are suffering more casualties, no question about it," Lieutenant General Mark Milley said via video link from Afghanistan, according to AFP.

NATO's US-led forces assist Afghan army and police personnel to improve strategic maneuvers and avoid high casualties, said Milley, who serves as deputy commander of the US forces in Afghanistan. He added that casualties will decline as more helicopters, artillery, and mortars are introduced.

Nevertheless, the 350,000-member Afghan security force is taking "somewhere in the range of 50 to 100" deaths per week, Milley said.

"And that's not at all insignificant. That is significant. And we're paying attention to that," he added.

The highest casualty rate for American troops in the war occurred in 2010, when 500 US soldiers died.


Comment: America's own counter-insurgency forces are knocking of the Afghan security forces, thereby justifying the US presence there and also to justify increase military spending. Same picture in Iraq, where "suicide bombings" kill hundreds of people every week. All with the aim of divide and conquer.

See: Suicide Bombings - A Favourite US Counter-Insurgency Tactic


Blackbox

To do or not to do: Obama to decide on suspending aid to Egypt after Syria vote

Egyptian army tanks
© Reuters / Asmaa Waguih

Top US national security aides have advised President Obama to suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in economic and military aid to Egypt because of remaining uncertainty after the Egyptian military forced the nation's president out of power.

Egypt currently receives $1.5 billion in US aid annually - $1.3 billion of which is designated for the military. US officials told the Associated Press that keeping the aid package intact after Mohamed Morsi - Egypt's first democratically elected president - was ousted from power could benefit Washington's future influence in the Middle East.

The Obama administration has carefully avoided calling Morsi's July 3 removal from power a "coup" - a designation that would legally require the US to immediately halt aid payments. However, it was previously reported that lawmakers are working under the assumption that the Egyptian military did, in fact, forcibly assume control.

President Obama has been considering the most recent recommendation for at least a week, but he is expected to wait until Congress votes on whether to launch a military strike against Syria before making the announcement, the sources told AP.

Obama will decide how much, if any, aid will be suspended, although officials are reportedly calling for a substantial amount to be withheld. Those payments would presumably resume after a new government was democratically elected.

Comment: Nobel peace price laureate Obama will make sure he doesn't do anything that will hinder the US war industry aka the industrial military complex.


Stormtrooper

US and allied warships off the Syrian coastline: Naval deployment was decided "before" the August 21 chemical weapons attack

Image
A massive US and allied naval deployment is occurring in the Eastern Mediterranean off Syria's coastline as well as in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

While this display of military might may not be part of an immediate attack plan on Syria, it is creating an atmosphere of fear and panic within Syria.

The US Navy has deployed the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport ship to the Eastern Mediterranean. The San Antonio is joining five US destroyers which "are already in place for possible missile strikes on Syria, a defense official said Sunday."
The USS San Antonio, with several helicopters and hundreds of Marines on board, is "on station in the Eastern Mediterranean" but "has received no specific tasking," said the defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'US Navy deploys five warships, one amphibious ship to Mediterranean for Syria'
While the USS San Antonio has amphibious landing equipment, which can be used to land some six thousand sailors and marines, "no boots on the ground", however, remains the official motto.

Heart - Black

Al-Qaeda-linked rebels attack Christian village in Syria

Jabhat al-Nusra
© (Reuters / Ahmed Jadallah)Fighters from Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra
An Al-Qaeda-linked group attacked a predominantly Christian village sympathetic to the Assad regime in western Syria on Wednesday while rebel and government forces clashed in Damascus.

The attack began at dawn when a Jabhat al-Nusra fighter blew himself up at a government checkpoint near the entrance to Maaloula - a village of 2,000 residents - according to a Syrian official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information from anti-regime activists.

Following the suicide bombing, al-Nusra rebels and government forces traded fire, with the rebels eventually seizing the checkpoint and taking over a hotel on a mountain overlooking the village, according the Observatory and a local nun.

Rebels also disabled two tanks and an armored personnel carrier and killed eight regime soldiers during the fighting.

From the mountaintop hotel, rebels fired shells into the village, forcing around 80 people to take refuge in a convent, the nun said.

A Syrian government official has confirmed the attack, AP reported.

Mr. Potato

Embarrassment for Hollande after US leaves him dangling

President Hollande
© Unknown
President Hollande struggled to maintain French resolve for a strike against Syria last night after Washington's retreat prompted dismay in his administration and stirred opposition demands for a parliamentary vote.

Manuel Valls, the French Interior Minister, said that President Obama's shift had "created a new situation". He added: "France cannot go it alone. We need a coalition."

By backtracking on his agreement with Paris on an immediate offensive, Mr Obama has severely embarrassed the Socialist President. Already weakened by the defection of Britain, France now finds itself as the lone important ally and hostage to the US political tide. Some of the Hollande team voiced frustration over what they said was a letdown by Mr Obama which played into the hands of critics who accuse the French President of becoming a "poodle" to the United States.