Welcome to Sott.net
Tue, 02 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Bad Guys

Interesting timing: State Department announces it's ready to 'render assistance' to Transnistria

Image
© Flickr / Dieter Zirnig
Washington is ready to render assistance to Transnistria, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bridget Brink, said on Friday.

"I came to hear what problems and challenges you face and how the United States can help," Brink said during a meeting in Tiraspol with the acting head of foreign affairs of the self-proclaimed republic, Vitaly Ignatyev.

The sides discussed a wide range of issues of mutual concern.

Comment: Russia has played a masterful hand and Washington really has no other options besides doubling down on its 'hybrid warfare' model. So expect more color revolutions, false flags, proxy warfare, and propaganda. Also see:
The problem is that Transnistria does not want to go along with Moldova's vision of the future.

Instead, it has expressed its desire to politically and economically integrate with Russia, and over 1000 Russian peacekeepers are currently stationed there.

Its Russian-speaking and Russian-friendly population fears cultural and ethnic cleansing if Moldova moves closer to the West, since nationalists have been agitating for supposed 'reunification' with cultural cousin Romania.

Moldova the next clash between the West and Russia?



Fire

Last days of the republic: Congress passes 'procedural martial law' for the second time in a month

martial law
The debt ceiling issue is returning to the forefront in American politics, again threatening a government shutdown.

Last time, the shutdown resulted in sequester for many agencies that suspended work for many government employees; a great deal of political theater dominated the news cycle; but ultimately, things returned to a basic normalcy.

This time may be different, as a number of critical factors face Americans in 2015. Last week, Congress passed "procedural martial law" to address stop-gap spending as it faces the debt ceiling crisis again.

Meanwhile, this quietly announced martial law forced a vote on bills the same day, preventing members from even reading the legislation they were voting on, to avert an October 1 government shutdown. The move, which was done just a few weeks prior, shows how desperate things have become.

Bad Guys

Why the U.S. is responsible for ISIS and the disaster in Syria

ISIS Islamic State
© AP
An Islamic State militant waves his group’s flag as he and another celebrate in Fallujah, Iraq.
Pundits and politicians are already looking for a convenient explanation for the twin Middle East disasters of the rise of Islamic State and the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. The genuine answer is politically unpalatable, because the primary cause of both calamities is U.S. war and covert operations in the Middle East, followed by the abdication of U.S. power and responsibility for Syria policy to Saudi Arabia and other Sunni allies.

The emergence of a new state always involves a complex of factors. But over the past three decades, U.S. covert operations and war have entered repeatedly and powerfully into the chain of causality leading to Islamic State's present position.

The causal chain begins with the role of the U.S. in creating a mujahedeen force to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Osama bin Laden was a key facilitator in training that force in Afghanistan. Without that reckless U.S. policy, the blowback of the later creation of al-Qaida would very likely not have occurred. But it was the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq that made al-Qaida a significant political-military force for the first time. The war drew Islamists to Iraq from all over the Middle East, and their war of terrorism against Iraqi Shiites was a precursor to the sectarian wars to follow.

Comment: Also see: Storm Clouds Gathering: WWIII - Syria, Russia & Iran - The New Equation (VIDEO)


Document

Russia in the news: 10 days that changed the world

russian flag
10 DAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. They did, don't you think? Gilbert Doctorow describes the interlocking parts of Moscow's actions: coalition assembled, the UNGA, the military moves, the demonstration that Russia has full-capacity armed forces, Ukraine.

SYRIA. Clearly the big story. Others have commented: I recommend Dyer, Escobar and Buchanan. But there are plenty more. All I have to add are a few observations. Re the "Russian invasion" of Ukraine and grainy photos of combine harvesters or whatever somewhere or other, this is what real satellite photos look like: colour, detail, precision. Russia's intervention has exploded the US fantasy of "moderate opposition" (but weren't there only four or five of them?) and its incoherent two-horse scheme (watch McCain lump "barrel bombs" and beheaders together as if Assad and ISIS were the same at 6:51). As to Russia being "doomed to fail", its strikes are coordinated with the forces on the ground that are actually fighting ISIS; Syrian forces have begun an offensive. And with Iraq too. Egypt as well. Israel even? Is Iran coming? There are suggestions that both Iraq and Afghanistan would welcome Russian assistance because ISIS has only grown stronger in the year of the US-led operation, despite its claims. Moscow prepared the ground, did everything legally, assembled a coalition and moved quickly and decisively. Not Putin vs Obama, or "standing up to Putin", but a direct challenge to the New American Century crowd; "the most powerful, good and honorable nation... the exceptional nation": "Do you at least realise now what you have done?" (Вы хоть понимаете теперь, что вы натворили?).

Comment: More coverage of the past 2 weeks' events here:


Bomb

Ankara blast: Just in time to justify NATO incursion into Syria

ankara blast
A massive blast has killed at least 30 and injured over 100 more in NATO-member Turkey's capital of Ankara. The blast appears to have targeted the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who was holding a peace rally at the moment of the explosion.

CNN would report in their article, "30 killed in bombing near main train station in Turkey's capital," that:
At least one powerful bomb hit near the main train station in the Turkish capital Saturday morning, killing 30 people, authorities said, making it the deadliest attack in Ankara in recent memory.
It would also claim that:
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, though suspicion immediately fell on the ISIS terrorist group or on Kurdish separatists in Turkey.

Turkey avoided, for quite some time, any conflict with ISIS, perhaps in exchange for the release earlier this year of dozens of Turkish hostages seized in the Iraqi city of Mosul. No details of those negotiations have been released.

However, Turkey recently changed its stance and allowed the U.S. to launch strikes on ISIS from the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.

Comment: The death toll for the Ankara blast is currently at 86. Inside job? Or a little 'push' from the U.S./NATO to stay on board? See also: Huge explosion rocks Turkish capital Ankara, many casualties reported

Notice the difference: When Russia bombs someplace the objective is stated plainly and openly; it is explained and backed up with data, logic and reasoning - and people who aren't "pro-Western" are elated and relieved by the purposeful strategy. When ISIS/al-Nusra/al-Qauida or NATO bombs the lights out of a group or country, it is almost always that innocents that die, a "message" is sent, and the terror inflicted is serving the pursuits and interest of hegemony.


Propaganda

SOTT Exclusive: Catapulting the propaganda - CNN sez 'Russian cruise missiles hit Iran!'

Image
The overwhelmingly successful Russian offensive against Western terror proxies in Syria has blown the lid off the United States' fabricated 'War on Terror'™. The US has essentially been deposed from power in Syria and now sits in the geopolitical backseat. If the US were led by rational, but humanly flawed individuals, one might expect some reflection about the error of their ways. But we know by now that the sycophants and parasites in Washington have no capacity for reflection. The remaining strategic recourse for these emotionally-barren trolls is to distract people in whatever way they can; bomb hospitals, set up 'lone shooters', and - of course - squawk an endless stream of baseless lies.

The latest absurdity comes from the spineless bobbing-heads at CNN. Instead of acknowledging how the United States has been outmaneuvered in Syria, CNN presstitutes make fools of themselves by projecting the dying Empire's impotence onto Russia:
A number of cruise missiles launched from a Russian ship and aimed at targets in Syria have crashed in Iran, two U.S. officials told CNN Thursday.

Monitoring by U.S. military and intelligence assets has concluded that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran.

The U.S. believes, based on intelligence reports of damage assessments, that some buildings were damaged and civilians may have been hurt.

It's unclear where in Iran the missiles landed. The Russian ships have been positioned in the south Caspian Sea, meaning the likely flight path for missiles into Syria would cross over both Iran and Iraq.

Comment: See also:

SOTT Exclusive: The reason Kerry can't be specific about who 'non-ISIS' groups are

Information war goes into overdrive as West reacts to Russian intervention in Syria


Play

Storm Clouds Gathering: WWIII - Syria, Russia & Iran - The New Equation (VIDEO)

storm clouds gathering
The Syrian Front Just Got Much More Dangerous

On September 30th, 2015 Russia began airstrikes against ISIS and its affiliates in Syria. These strikes were conducted at the request of the Syrian government. Iran followed announcing that they were preparing to send in ground troops

These developments completely change the geopolitical equation, and not just in Syria.

Western politicians and their corporate media lapdogs are obviously not happy about where this is headed, and they have taken to the airwaves in force to voice their condemnation. First they claimed that Russia was hitting "moderate", U.S. backed rebels rather than exclusively focusing on ISIS.

Wait, on September 16th General Lloyd Austin of the US Central Command testified that there were only 4 or 5 U.S. trained fighters in all of Syria, and now these fighters are supposedly in control of an entire region?


Comment: For more on the war in Syria, the history, and the context in order to know what's really going on, read Joe Quinn's latest SOTT Focus: Russia, Syria and the anglo-American existential gas war in the Middle East


Bomb

Huge explosion rocks Turkish capital Ankara, many casualties reported

Ankara bomb blast after peace rally
© DHA
Footage from the scene showed banners from the planned peace rally

Comment: See below for updates.


At least 30 people were killed in a double explosion at a road junction in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Two explosions took place near the railway station in the center of the Turkish capital of Ankara on Saturday, Doğan News Agency reported.

More than 100 people were injured, according to the Turkish media.


Bad Guys

Pentagon hopes to escalates hostilities with Russia: All they need is a reason the public will support

Next 9/11

Comment: In the speech below by General Keane, he all but admits that the US does not care about fighting ISIS, preferring to overthrow Assad and the legitimate democratically elected Syrian government instead. He is saying the Russians have started a proxy war against the United States by upsetting their own proxy war in Syria. It should give you a shiver down your spine to hear a former general, who in all likelihood represents the mindset of the US military establishment, imply that the US should take action which could lead to WWIII out of necessity to instill fear. We'd say we hope saner minds will intervene and prevail, but all sanity and caring for the truth seems to be absent in the Western establishment.


It should be no surprise that, with egg on its face, the U.S. was not going to stand by as Putin commenced bombing ISIS out of existence.

With U.S. leaders up in arms over the targeting of their "CIA-backed moderate rebels," everyone is stunned at Putin's reported 40% destruction of ISIS' entire infrastructure in Syria in one simple week.

No, there had to be a reason to blame Putin, and reclaim the narrative.

Now, just in time, figures from the Pentagon, including Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and former U.S. Army vice chief of staff General Jack Keane, have raised the level of rhetoric about the activities of Russia in bombing Syria.

A rationale for opposing Russia's bombing of ISIS has been manufactured, and is now escalating - with a chorus of criticism citing the reported errors of Putin's "unprofessional" campaign, as Secretary Carter termed it.

Comment: How are Americans going to be pushed in the direction to support direct action in Syria and by default direct confrontation with Russia? Despite the constant propaganda against Russia and Putin since the US instituted a coup in the Ukraine and Russia's reaction, the American public does not seem to be at the point to support such madness. It would seem that they are far from it. Some event, perhaps some false flag operation much like 9/11 and what follows in the mainstream media, will be implemented in order to seat the fear and propaganda the West has been pumping out to its public. One would think the 'event' would have to be much bigger than take-down of MH17 by the West over the Ukraine in an attempt to implicate Russia because that did not work to stoke the fears adequately.

They have also already planted the seed that ISIS would be behind the next 9/11, so maybe that is the route they will take in order to garner the support needed to counter the moves by Russia:
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned that the next 9/11 attack could emanate from Iraq and Syria if the U.S. does not take steps to immediately halt the advance of the Islamic militants sweeping toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Be on the alert!


Star of David

Heating up: At least 6 Palestinians killed, dozens wounded by IDF soldiers on Hamas 'Day of Rage'


At least six Palestinians were killed and 60 injured when soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire on a crowd of protesters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as they approached a border fence with Israel on Friday, according to Gaza medics.

The incident took place when around 200 Palestinians approached the fence in northern Gaza and began "throwing stones and rolling burning tires at Israeli forces," an Israeli army spokesperson said, as quoted by The Times of Israel.

IDF troops then opened fire on the protesters from about 150 feet (50 meters) away, the spokesman said, adding that the soldiers remained on the Israeli side of the border.

Comment: The violence seems to be spreading throughout Israel, West Bank and Gaza.