Puppet MastersS


Question

Scott Adams: Trusting your government in a time of war

donald trump
President Trump's critics and supporters agree on one thing: Our new president has a history of "stretching" the truth whenever there is some advantage in doing so, and sometimes even when there is not. You might say he is famous for playing loose with the facts. We all expect a high degree of "hyperbole" from President Trump, to put it kindly. He gets away with it because barely-enough Americans believe his intentions are in line with America's best interests.

The odd exception to our universal understanding of President Trump's mode of operation is his claim that he is totally certain Assad was responsible for the chemical attack on his own people last week. The President's critics and most of his supporters believe President Trump when he suggests that our military can track any plane in Syria and know what that plane did to whom.

Do you believe that?

Arrow Up

Flashback Syria, Sarin, and Casus Belli

gas attack Ghouta syria 2013
© AFP/Shaam News NetworkSyrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows bodies of children laid out on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta on August 21, 2013.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that on August 21 the Assad government slaughtered 1,429 people, including 426 children, in a sarin chemical attack in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb. (Doctors Without Borders put the total at about 300.) Secretary Kerry insisted that now the United States had no choice but to launch U.S. bombing attacks against President Bashar al-Assad, devolving into another of America's "humanitarian wars."

The Sarin Mysteries

Following Kerry, President Obama announced that the situation in Syria had changed irredeemably since August 21. The United States would have to attack. But, on second thought, Obama decided to leave the decision up to (a seemingly reluctant) Congress.

A few weeks later, Turkish prosecutors issued a lengthy court indictment charging the Syrian rebels with seeking to use chemical weapons. The indictment suggested that sarin gas and other "weapons for a terrorist organization" were utilized by the opposition and not by the Assad government.

The "Syrian freedom fighters" include men who are not even Syrian, much like the many mujahedeen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan but who were not Afghani. As reported in the Wall Street Journal (September 19, 2013), the ISIS, an Iraqi al Qaeda outfit operating in Syria, "has become a magnet for foreign jihadists" who view the war in Syria not primarily as a means to overthrow Assad "but rather as a historic battleground for a larger Sunni holy war.

According to centuries-old Islamic prophecy they espouse, they must establish an Islamic state in Syria as a step to achieving a global one."

Jet3

US Air Force could make pilots stay in service against their will amid drastic shortage

US fighter jets
© Ints Kalnins / Reuters
The US Air Force could soon be forcing pilots to stay in the service against their will, according to the chief of the military unit's Air Mobility Command. It comes amid an exodus of pilots leaving the Air Force for jobs at commercial airlines.

General Carlton Everhart told Roll Call that he has spoken with airline executives about the huge number of pilots leaving the Air Force.

"I said to the industry...if we can't meet the requirements, the chief could drop in a stop-loss - and you need to understand that," he said, referring to the practice of forcing Air Force personnel to stay in the service beyond their period of commitment.

Attention

China rejects coal shipments from North Korea

North Korea coal
© Adam Dean / Reuters
A fleet of North Korean cargo ships laden with coal is returning to their home port of Nampo after China ordered its trading companies to refuse the shipments, Reuters reports quoting shipping data.

This appears to show China is committed to the ban on imports of North Korean coal after Pyongyang carried out globally criticized missile tests. Coal is the crucial export product of the isolated state, especially the deliveries of the type used for steel making - coking coal.

To curb coal traffic between the two countries, Chinese customs ordered companies to return their North Korean coal cargoes starting from April 7, according to Reuters sources.

Attention

Syrian intel intercepts jihadist plots to commit war crimes, frame Syrian government, and wait for new US missiles

Syrian truck
© RusVesna.suFrom October 2016: Russian airstrike/ground based hoax -- and more to come.
An officer of the Syrian special service Mukhabarat has reported to our Russian Spring correspondent:

By monitoring the channels of communication of high-ranking members of the gangs, intelligence officers managed to intercept information about a series of bloody provocations in progress.

"After the recent missile strike by the US, the bandits have been thinking that they could provoke the Trump administration into taking further similar actions," the military official said.

Comment:


Bad Guys

Jeremy Corbyn: Syria could become US-Russian proxy war

Jeremy Corbyn
© Russell Cheyne / ReutersThe leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn.
British leaders should be wary of a US-Russian proxy war being played out in Syria at the expense of any kind of peaceful settlement, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn warned.

The Labour leader also criticized UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for suggesting at a G7 summit in Italy that US President Donald Trump could launch further missile strikes against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Corbyn told the BBC that any solution had to be "political."

"Surely we have to get Russia and America around the table together to put pressure on respective parties to this war, because it's in danger of becoming a proxy war between them, in order to have a meaningful and effective ceasefire," he said.

Comment: It already is a proxy war, Jeremy!


Arrow Down

Anonymous US official acknowledges no evidence of Russian involvement in Syria chemical attack but concludes Russia was complicit

Pentagon
The United States military has concluded that Russians knew ahead of time that chemical weapons would be used in the recent attack in northwestern Syria, according to a senior US official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity since he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on intelligence issues, told The Associated Press on Monday that a Russian surveillance drone was flying over a hospital where victims of the April 4 attack were being brought for treatment.

The senior official claimed that after the drone left the place a Russian-manufactured fighter aircraft bombed the hospital in an attempt to cover up the usage of controversial weaponry.

The United States, however, has no proof of Russian involvement in the actual chemical attack that left more than 80 people dead and dozens others injured in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province, the official acknowledged.

Chess

T-Rex arrives in Moscow amid US manufactured tensions

Tillerson Lavrov
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will arrive in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss Syria with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. The visit comes as recent US strikes on a Syrian base were followed by hints of sanctioning Russia for supporting Assad.

While in Moscow, Tillerson is expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday, with the Syrian crisis being the key issue on the agenda. This is the former oil executive's first visit to Russia as Secretary of State.

Russia expects a constructive dialogue free of confrontational rhetoric, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday ahead of the meeting. Moscow is willing to discuss all matters of mutual concern raised by Tillerson and is ready "for any course of events," the ministry noted. It would, however, prefer "to work on de-escalating the international tensions, not heightening them," it said, adding, "We do hope that the American side wants the same."


Info

South Ossetia votes for new president and new name, hopes to join Russia

South Ossetia flags
On Sunday, April 9th, the Republic of South Ossetia held presidential elections. The registered candidates for the post of president were Speaker of Parliament Anatoly Bibilov, President Leonid Tibilov, and KGB officer Alan Gagloev. The head of the Central Electoral Commission of the republic, Bella Plieva, has announced that Bibilov has won 57.98% of the votes in the first round, Tibilov 30%, and Gagloev 11.01%.

The results of the South Ossetian elections, according to the director of the Center for Political Conjuncture, Aleksey Chesnakov, are a signal of closer ties between the republic and the Russian Federation.

"The results of the elections in South Ossetia should be considered a signal for further convergence between South Ossetia and Russia. Anatoly Bibilov is known for his consistent position on South Ossetia directly becoming part of Russia, and as an active supporter of a new agreement with the Russian Federation. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that there will be new stimuli for the countries to further integrate," Chesnakov explained.

Blackbox

Was Donald Trump's Syrian missile strike a 'massive blunder'?

Trump
© Politico
By launching his missile strike the President has destroyed his reputation for consistency, emboldened his enemies and dismayed his friends.

Following Napoleon's murder in March 1804 of the Duc d'Enghien, Napoleon's chief of police, Joseph Fouché, said of the murder "C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute" - "It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder." President Trump's missile strike on Sharyat air base in Syria was like the Duc d'Enghien's murder, not just a crime but a blunder.

Reasons given for why President Trump ordered the missile strike differ.

Comment: Also see: