'Important intel' captured in US raid on Yemen is 10 years old

[banging her head on the keyboard]

Pentagon’s video from Yemen raid turned out to be 10 years old, already widely circulated
Published time: 4 Feb, 2017 - 03:46
RT

The Pentagon’s website no longer shows an “important intelligence” video obtained in a fatal Yemeni raid, since officials realized the footage has been available online for a decade.

On Friday, the Pentagon posted a video to the Defense Video Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) website they said justified the operation in Yemen which cost the life of one US Navy SEAL and several Yemeni civilians.

“The raid resulted in the seizure of materials and information that is yielding valuable intelligence to help partner nations deter and prevent future terror attacks in Yemen and across the world,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) declared in a statement.

President Donald Trump also hailed the raid as a success, citing the fact that “important intelligence” was obtained, which he said would “assist the US in preventing terrorism against its citizens and people around the world.”

The video released by the Pentagon depicted a man in a white robe and black mask demonstrating how to make Triacetone Triperoxide, an explosive used in the attempted “shoe-bomber” attack in 2001 and the London attacks in 2005.

Only problem is, the video clips, titled, "Lessons in How to Destroy the Cross," were first posted to the Site Intelligence group website in 2007.

Several hours after its posting, the material was removed from the DVIDS site.

“It does not matter when the video was made; that they had it is still illustrative of who they are and what their intentions are,” Davis said, according to Reuters.

The January 29 raid in Yemen was the first major military operation autrhorised by Trump and resulted in the death of American Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens, and several civilians, which “may include children,” CENTCOM wrote in a press release after the raid.

An eight-year-old girl, Nora, the daughter of US-born Yemeni preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, was among the children killed in the raid, according to her grandfather.

[See RT for copy of CENTCOM statement about the raid]

The raids were first proposed in the last weeks of the Obama administration, but as Colin Kahl, a national security official under President Barack Obama, said in a series of tweets, “This particular raid was NOT discussed” by the Obama administration.

Kahl's tweets further reveal that the Obama administration wanted to park the raid for the next administration who would have more time to plan the details.

[END REPORT]

Was the U.S. set up by al Qaeda? Alex Jones at Infowars seems to think so.  

See also MoA's Feb. 2 analysis of the raid, Crazy Ideas About The U.S. Attack In Yemen, which posted earlier here.

Now let me see if Voltaire Network has anything to say about the raid. [taptaptaptap]  No. Not yet, at any rate. But they do have a brief report, posted Jan. 31, on the reorganization of al Qaeda in Syria, and this knee-slapper from Jan. 27, 
London is forced to concede that Syria is a democracy, with a great photo of British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson trying to think, which I now sequester.

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Marine Le Pen's niece takes on that strange creature, the Shariah-Compliant Feminist

Gates of Vienna has the video of Marion Maréchal-Le Pen's fiery speech (the English subtitles are a little hard to read during the first moments) along with a line-by-line English translation of the transcript. 

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US-led coalition under Obama left Trump to deal with their disasters in MENA

Civilians in West Mosul: "Families say people are already dying for lack of food."

Residents Trapped in Western Mosul Tell Their Stories in Whispers

3 February 2017 - 3:00 PM EST

VOA

[...]

Like many other [cell phone] calls coming from scared residents, it revealed a world beyond the front lines that is rapidly descending into a living hell. Militants have become more brutal, turning trapped families into virtual prisoners. Bombs from both sides rain down while residents run out of food, fuel and water.

[...]

Residents say problems inside their homes eclipse even the bombs and aerial bombardments. The prices of food and fuel have climbed, the water is bad and the people are out of money.

Some items, like eggs and sugar, cost as much as 30 times their normal price, if you can find them. Most families are reduced to one meal a day, and many say they have only potatoes and onions to eat, even at hefty costs. Many families now burn their furniture to cook and heat their homes, according to their relatives in areas controlled by the Iraqi armed forces.

And the longer the war goes on, the worse it gets, said Ahmed, 20, a former student in an area of eastern Mosul taken by Iraqi forces about two weeks ago.

"The other side is surrounded on all sides, so there's no way to sneak in anything," he said, after a late-night call with a friend. "The militants are under siege."

The people, however, are bearing the brunt of the pain, he added.

Many have been unemployed since the day IS took over Mosul in 2014, or have been working city service jobs, like teaching or fighting fires, without a salary for 2½ years. Families say people are already dying for lack of food, but whispered phone calls are not enough to create a clear picture of the depth of the crisis.

"A month ago, we could take a boat to the other side to bring help," said Thiaa, a day worker in Mosul. "Instead of coalition planes dropping bombs, why can't they drop food?"

[END REPORT]

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"Look Who Funds The Group Behind The Call To Arms At Milo’s Berkeley Event"

Huh. I thought they were called Antifa. No matter; you'll never guess who contributed funds to the gang. First two guesses don't count.  

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Estimate: "Chile's forest fires will cost government $333 million." 41 fires still burning

"Chile's forestry industry, one of the country's main export sectors, reported $350 million in losses as of Monday."

By Anthony Esposito | SANTIAGO
3 February 2017 - 3:05 PM EST
Reuters

Chile's massive forest fires that have killed 11 people and destroyed nearly 1,500 homes will cost the government $333 million dollars, Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdes told reporters on Friday.

The government will reallocate $100 million from the current budget to mitigate the effects of the blazes, while another $233 million will be taken out of a rainy-day fund that the government maintains for such situations, Valdes said at a press conference.

"Those are the costs that the state will have to assume in the preliminary estimate that we're doing," Valdes said. "That situation can change when we have more information, and it will depend on how the wildfires evolve."

According to official figures, the fires have so far consumed over 580,000 hectares (1,433,000 acres).

Foreign firefighters and specialists from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, France, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Spain, the United States and Venezuela have teamed up with local rescue teams to fight the 41 active fires.

Forest fires are a regular feature of Chile's hot, arid summers, but a nearly decade-long drought combined with historically high temperatures have created tinder-like conditions in the nation's central regions.

Valdes said the estimates do not include damages to small and medium sized producers, nor private donations.

Losses for Chile's private sector have been significant in some cases. Chile's forestry industry, one of the country's main export sectors, reported $350 million in losses as of Monday.

Valdes said that the government would not need to issue debt to help with the aid effort and added that they are still calculating the potential impact on economic growth.

(Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Writing by Gram Slattery & Anthony Esposito; Editing by Chris Reese and Diane Craft)

[END REPORT]

*******

Why didn't Der Spiegel depict Trump running over the Statue of Liberty with a truck?

22 December 2016: Berlin terror attack: Tunisian asylum seeker was investigated over earlier terror plot 

If Spiegel wanted to flaunt its Islamist sympathies, then given the recent massacre in Berlin by an Islamist using a truck, wouldn't it have been more topical for its German readers if the Spiegel cover had depicted President Trump running down the Statue of Liberty instead of beheading the statue? 

Here are a couple pictures in case Spiegel has already forgotten what happened at the Christmas market last year: 

Then again, I think I might see why Spiegel preferred to depict a beheading on its cover; after all, there were no videos made available of Germans being slaughtered while they tried to run away from the truck, but there are many videos of beheadings for the Spiegel artist to use for inspiration.  

********

How did Der Spiegel get the idea to show Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty?

How do you say "Allahu Akbar" in German?

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You'll never guess where this photo of a blizzard was taken

The photo was taken in the United Arab Emirates. This isn't the first time in recent months that a country in the Middle East was hit by snow, which isn't unheard of in that part of the world, but the levels of snowfall in recent months in some parts were unusual. In Syria they'd never seen snowbanks before, at least not outside the mountains, if even there. So probably the Russians had to show the Syrian army how to maneuver tanks in such conditions because the Syrian tank drivers were having trouble at first. By the way the heavy snowfalls combined with unusually cold weather gave the Syrian army a considerable advantage over the bad guys, whose footgear is greatly limited to sneakers.   

Anyhow, high winds in the UAE  turned the falling snow into a blizzard.

Freak UAE weather conditions lead to snow, crane collapse, fire (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)
Published time: 3 Feb, 2017 18:05

RT

.The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is known for its desert climate and year-round sunshine, but freak weather conditions have covered part of it in snow. And as if that wasn’t weird enough, heavy winds also caused a crane to collapse, sparking a fire.

One person was injured in the blaze following the crane collapse on Dubai’s busy Sheikh Zayed Road, according to officials cited by AFP. 

[See RT website for photos of the damage from the crane collapse and the fire, and videos/more photos of the snow conditions]

Three vehicles were also destroyed in the fire.

The incident prompted the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority to briefly suspend part of the city’s metro service as a “safety precaution” due to falling debris on the tracks.

Authorities also urged motorists to drive carefully on the road, after the National Center for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) warned of increasing winds and poor visibility.

Winds reached between 75 and 80kph (45 and 50mph) across the UAE, which was also hit by rough seas.

A rare 10cm (3.9 inches) of snow landed in the area of Jebel Jais, the UAE’s highest mountain, Gulf News reported. Temperatures also plummeted between -2°C (28.4°F) and -3°C (26.6°F) in the area.

But the below-freezing temperatures didn’t stop locals from going outside to build a few snowmen – Emirati style.

It is not, however, the first time that Jebel Jais, which sits at a height of 5,700 feet, has seen snow – it experienced a lighter snowfall back in December 2004.

[END REPORT]

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India as a test case for imposing a globalized totalitarian state

The combination of fintech and biometrics or the "Cashless Biometric Control Grid," as James Corbett calls it, is being experimented with in India with big help from the U.S. government; this under the guise of fighting counterfeit Indian currency and 'black' money -- this despite the fact that only 6-10 percent of Indian black money is kept in cash. So what was once the province of conspiracy theorists is now well on its way to becoming reality.  

Although the YouTube video is long (43 minutes) Corbett's January 27 crash course, Demonetization and You, is the clearest overview of the complicated subject I've found so far. One of the articles he quotes is by German business journalist Norbert Haering, published at Haering's site on January 1 and at the anti-globalist site Global Research. It's titled A Well-Kept Open Secret: Washington Is Behind India’s Brutal Demonetization Project. 

The big news to emerge from Haering's research is that USAID was involved with promoting the Indian currency swap. However, Haering doesn't get into how the biometric I.D. aspect, which translates to virtual total surveillance capacity, combines with the digital cashless society, whereas Corbett's report does. It's necessary to learn about this aspect if you want to understand why the big picture Haering refers to is so scary.

Corbett also outlines ways that people can use 'off the grid' monetary tools to evade the long reach of the totalitarian surveillance-and-monetary control state. But he admits that current laws can make it relatively easy for governments, and in particular the American one, to quash monetary self-reliance. Only when a great many people rise up to protest will the totalitarians back off a bit.

More about Corbett's crash course on demonetization is available at his website, the Corbett Report, along with a handy reference to the minute marks on the video report that relate to specific topics; e.g., Satya Sagar's interview, the Indian government's project to fingerprint and iris scan over a billion people, etc., and reports that specifically address the topics. The supplemental material related to the video report is well organized.   

As to whether there's anything benign about the cashless biometric society, there is. But diversity of choices is far more benign, even without the very real threat of evil people getting in control of the system. There are manmade and natural reasons why it's folly to make societies dependent on a single digital system that controls all monetary transactions; cyberwar and geomagnetic storms being just two examples.

The name of the survival game in this century is diversification. I'll toss in that the greatest enemy of survival is over-specialization, which leads to such blinkered views that galactic-sized chunks of reality are completely missed by experts. 

Thus we found Pundita in 2009, jumping up and down at her blog and screaming at the CDC and WHO, 'You idiots, your mathematical models are out of date!' 

But the CDC and WHO were unaware that the present era in air travel included huge numbers of international airports built all over the world. And so they refused to believe that swine flu could go from the outbreak stage to pandemic stage in one leap because their math told them this couldn't happen. 

By the time they figured it out, it was too late to battle swine flu at the airports, although lucky for the human race China's government did immediately realize what was happening. And so the Chinese clawed out just enough hours to get a vaccine into production before the inevitable exponential spread of the virus overwhelmed their defenses. 

As to what would have happened if they hadn't, this is something you don't want to think about because swine flu was more deadly and infectious and took far more lives than the CDC and WHO knew during the height of the pandemic, although neither agency took out billboards to announce these grim discoveries later on.

That's what is out there. The only offset is diversification -- diversification of problem-solving approaches, diversification of knowledge, diversification of critical systems. To include monetary systems.

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"Aankh Uthi Mohabbat Ne Angrai"

"after all these years, still mind blowing. No one can sing like ustaad-ji"

Above is a comment at YouTube about this qawwali, sung by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Co. Although it was posted at YouTube in December 2010 the video was probably made in the 1980s or early 1990s.  (Nusrat died in 1997.)

I might have posted the video before -- I've posted so many of Nusrat's performances I can't remember for sure -- but it's a great way to concentrate the mind on things that transcend the chaos currently reported in the news media. 

In death he has more life than all today's popular singers combined. 

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Chile fires: "The heat was such that even planes couldn’t fly over to drop water."

“As of 2 February 131 fires were still raging." ... We have rarely witnessed such extreme behaviours in wildfires”... "The fires can reach 1400 degrees, sparking devastating 'fire-storms' when strong winds feed the blaze. The fiery tornadoes blow trees off their roots and carbonise everything in their path, leaving only white ash scattered over the vast hills."

I saw a video of the wildfires in Chile that showed a fire whirl or what's often called a fire tornado even though it's not an actual tornado. It's a towering, fast-moving vortex of superheated air that sucks in flame and debris and throws off burning embers across as many as five miles. The following report mentions that in just a single night the largest of the wildfires spread across 26 kilometers.      

    

3 February 2017

EU deploys team of 187 to fight Chile's worst wildfires in 50 years

Relief Web

Chile has already lost over half a million hectares to more than 100 wildfires raging throughout the country, the worst such disaster in 50 years. Barely half of the fires are controlled due to an exceptionally dry and windy summer in the southern hemisphere. A state of national catastrophe was declared two weeks ago.

Cristian Orellana, who manages the Forestry Operations Centre (CONAF) in the central Chilean region of Maule is supervising the response to the largest fire in the country. “In a single night, the fire spread over 10,000 hectares, covering 26 km,” he explains.

“The heat was such that even planes couldn’t fly over to drop water,” he adds. The fire wiped out more than 180,000 hectares, as well as the entire town of Santa Olga, former home to 4500 inhabitants.

In the last few days, 52 firefighters from Portugal deployed under the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM), have managed to bring the blaze under control.

“We have rarely witnessed such extreme behaviours in wildfires,” says Miguel Cruz, the deputy Head of Portugal’s Protecçao Civil and a veteran of EU Civil Protection deployments in Latin America. The fires can reach 1400 degrees, sparking devastating “fire-storms” when strong winds feed the blaze. The fiery tornadoes blow trees off their roots and carbonise everything in their path, leaving only white ash scattered over the vast hills.

In 38 C [100.4 F] degree heat, the firefighters dig trenches and chop massive pine trees to create barriers keeping the fires from spreading further.

A few days ago, a dozen helicopters ferried 900-litre “Bambi” buckets of water to the fire, assisting ground teams around the clock.

Established in 2001, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism coordinates national civil protection authorities across Europe to deliver immediate assistance in the aftermath of a disaster.

“I have never seen such widespread damage and such a level of destruction,” says José Almovodovar, an EUPM expert in forest fires, after surveying the region in one of the helicopters.

Entire vineyards of this famed Chilean wine region have been destroyed. Dozens of families are gathered in makeshift camps, where the Chilean army has set rows of beige tents to accommodate those who have lost everything.

As of 2nd February, 131 fires were still raging and 11 casualties reported. Seventy French and 52 Spanish firefighters are already deployed in the region of Bío Bío, south of Maule, bringing the total EUCPM headcount to 187 people, including coordination experts. Additional help is already on the way, as EU member states have pledged further equipment and in-kind assistance to Chile.
[END REPORT]

See also a report from NPR datelined 1 February that discusses firefighting and other types of aid from other countries, including the USA. However, the number of blazes cited in the report, "more than 70," is superseded by information in the above report.

See also:

Forest fires cause national emergency in Chile by Jan Rocha; Climate News Network; 3 February 2017

Wildfires Devastate Chilean Wine Country by Emma Balter; Wine Spectator; 27 January 2017

(As of 2014 Chilean wine made up 2.4 percent of the country's exports.) 

********* 

Soros is doing a great job of destroying the Democratic Party. Don't interfere.

In 2015 I sent a friend in the news media links to reports about rioting in Ferguson and Baltimore and added a one-sentence comment: "Donald Trump is the next president of the United States of America." This was not long after Trump had announced his run for the White House.

The friend thought my prediction was ridiculous. I didn't argue or even attempt to explain my reasoning.  

Yet as those who've been following this blog will recall, I had almost nothing to say about Trump even after he won the Republican nomination and all through his campaign. And I mentioned the rioting maybe only a couple times. In fact I've had little to say about American politics during all the years of this blog.

However, I did go to some trouble to warn over the years, and starting in one post on the first day of this blog, that the American government had to halt its practice of staging phony democracy revolutions in other countries -- a practice with which George Soros was famously associated. Well, "famously" outside the USA.     

On January 29 a blogger informed readers at the Right-leaning PJMedia, Soros Bankrolling Effort to Stop Trump’s Temporary Refugee Halt Order. He also bankrolled, often through cutouts, a great many protest movements in the USA, including Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter. And more than anyone, he orchestrated the 'Rainbow' coalition that put Obama in the White House. 

So I would ask Republican readers at PJMedia how it feels now that the tight shoe is on your foot. You kept silent through all the years Soros and other operatives, including Rupert Murdoch, were working for NATO to install puppet governments in Eastern Europe. When challenged about this flagrant betrayal of democracy your only answer, when it wasn't outright denial, was that it was for a good cause.          

As to Democrats, riddle me this: How is it that many American activist groups that claim to be anti-globalist accept donations from George Soros-funded initiatives? How is it that American media on both the Left and Right characterize Soros as a Leftist? That would be like describing Metternich as a democrat. 

Yet because the U.S. doesn't have a viable 'Leftist' political party, it's no surprise that the manufactured trouble keeps falling back on the Democratic Party, to the point where there's now a real question whether the party will survive.

All the above is another way of saying that while the wheels of justice may grind slowly, they grind exceedingly fine. 

How many warnings do Americans need before they stop supporting policies that treat peoples in other countries like chess pieces? One day the warnings will cease. Then it will be too late.    

Have a nice day.  

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"US increases firefighting aid to Chile as more than 70 blazes rage" UPDATED 10 AM EST

Update:
At last count, published today, the number of wildfires is 131. See this 3 February report from Relief Web. So the conflagrations are by no means under control; they're still spreading.  
****

By Rebecca Hersher
1 February 2017 - 3:32 PM EST
NPR

Photograph from a drone of a forest near La Florida, Chile, on Sunday, after a wildfire

Christian Miranda/AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. Embassy in Chile says it is sending an additional $740,000 for protective equipment and firefighting tools, as the country continues to battle more than 70 active wildfires that have killed at least 11 people in the past two weeks.

The latest contribution, announced Tuesday, brings the total wildfire aid to Chile from the U.S. government to $840,000, including $100,000 promised last week after Chilean President Michele Bachelet declared a state of emergency.

Some of the U.S. funds were used to purchase personal hygiene kits for residents of the town of Santa Olga, on the central coast, which was completely destroyed by a fire last week.

As The Two-Way reported:

"At least one body was recovered from the ashes in Santa Olga, according to Deutsche Welle, and about 6,000 residents fled the city as the flames moved in.

" 'This is an extremely serious situation — of horror, a nightmare without an end,' the mayor of the coastal city of Constitucion told the German broadcaster. 'Everything burned.' "

"We have never seen anything on this scale, never in the history of Chile," Bachelet said last week. "The truth is that the forces are doing everything humanly possible and will continue until they can contain and control the fires."

Drone footage published by the BBC over the weekend showed the skeletons of homes caught in the paths of blazes in the central region of Maule. The forest floor appeared white with ash, with only the charred remains of trees.

About 20,000 people are currently deployed to fight the blazes, including backcountry and local firefighters, military personnel and volunteers, according to Chile's public safety department.

According to Chile's foreign ministry, at least 13 countries have sent people to help fight the wildfires, which are concentrated in the central and southern part of the country. The U.S. has sent four people, as has Japan. Panama, Russia, Colombia, Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, Spain, France, Venezuela and Argentina have all sent 20 or more firefighters. Argentina contributed the most manpower, with 130 people on the ground in Chile as of Wednesday.

The Brazilian military has contributed a C-130 aircraft to help fight the fires from above. The Russian government also sent an aircraft, according to Chile's public safety department.

As The Two-Way reported, a privately owned Boeing 747 "supertanker" plane [the Evergreen 747 Supertanker, the largest water-dumping firefighting plane in the world] arrived last week in Santiago from Colorado, paid for by Fundación Viento Sur, which is part of the Walton Family Foundation and run by Ben Walton and his Chilean-native wife, Lucy Ana Walton de Avilés.

Earlier this month, NASA released images of the smoke from the fires, which is visible from space. The agency noted that the number of fires has increased in the past two years, going from "roughly 5,200 forest fires per season in the decade between 1990 and 2000, according to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization," to "more than 6,700 fires during the 2015–16 fire season."

[END REPORT]

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So what are Saudi Arabia and other rich Gulf kingdoms doing to help?

Severe drought brings starving Kenyans to church doorsteps

[...]

Agriculture in Africa is underfunded, although several governments in the African Union Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security committed to spending 10 percent of their national budget on agricultural development. Only 13 countries have met that target.

In Kenya the drought stretches across the coastal, north, northeastern and southern lowlands. Even the western region, which has not traditionally experienced severe droughts, is affected. Experts warn that the situation may persist for the next six months.

"The drought is of great concern to us as Muslims," said Sheikh Hassan Ole Naado, the deputy secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims. "We are praying and we are mobilizing."

Kenya’s government has been delivering relief food to nearly 1.6 million in arid and semi-arid areas. Officials say the number will surpass 2 million by the end of February.

Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the resumption of school feeding programs so that children can stay in school. The schools are also required to accept food as school fees.

In the north and northeastern regions, the Kenya Red Cross has been buying livestock from farmers, slaughtering the animals and distributing the meat to the community.

Meanwhile, Matolo and other many faith leaders in East Africa continue to stress better farming methods, the use of quality seeds and increased water harvesting.

"When I see the people starving, I feel desperate. I also feel disappointed that many of the promises by government officials to deliver water have not been honored," said Matolo.

"If these people can get water for irrigation, the area will become the country’s bread basket. They are doing it in Israel, which is a desert. Here, the soils are very fertile and the people are not lazy."

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Pakistan ends ban on Indian films

Well well.  

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Washington Establishment-backed Poroshenko starts a provocation

Moon of Alabama is giving the straight goods:

Ukraine: Coup Government Tries To Sabotage U.S.-Russia Rapprochement

February 17, 2017

Fighting in east Ukraine has restarted. This is an attempt by "deep state" forces to prevent any rapprochement between the U.S. and Russia under the new Trump administration.

The west-Ukrainian forces under command of the coup government of President Poroshenko started a large attack against the Russian supported Ukrainian self-defense forces in Donetsk and Lugansk governorate.

A ceasefire arranged after the Minsk II agreement provided for demilitarized zones along a line of separation. The Ukrainian government has so far avoided to fulfill the Minsk II agreement that would allow a reuniting of the country. An OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM), which includes officers from NATO countries as well as Russia, is supervising the ceasefire and issues daily reports.

On January 26 the SMM reported:

The SMM recorded more ceasefire violations [1] in Donetsk region, including about 420 explosions, compared with 228 in the previous reporting period. More than 160 explosions were recorded around the Svitlodarsk area, with exchanges of fire also recorded around Avdiivka and Yasynuvata.
...The Mission revisited a Ukrainian Armed Forces permanent storage site, whose location corresponded with the relevant withdrawal lines and observed that 12 tanks (T-64) and four mortars (2B9 Vasilek, 82mm) were missing, as previously noted.
...

The SMM followed up on reports of a blockade of a railway track near government-controlled Hirske. The railway leads towards the “LPR”-controlled settlements of Donetskyi and Sentianivka (formerly Frunze) (49 and 44km west of Luhansk, respectively). The Mission had observed a train travelling east through Donetskyi on 23 January. The SMM observed that the tracks had been blocked by tree trunks under a bridge on the southern edge of the settlement. About 20 unarmed men wearing camouflage clothing told the Mission that they were veterans from former volunteer battalions. The SMM observed a tent near the blockade site.

The observations on the 26th pointed to the preparation of a full attack which was launched on January 28:

The SMM recorded fewer ceasefire violations in Donetsk region between the evenings of 27 and 28 January compared with the previous reporting period (including about 330 explosions compared with about 520).[1] In the following 24 hours, however, the SMM recorded over 2,300 explosions, primarily in the Avdiivka-Yasynuvata-Donetsk airport area.

The SMM observed that the intense artillery barrage was launched north to south originating from the government held area.

The Nazi volunteer battalions from west-Ukrainian Galicia are spearheading the attack. There is ongoing fighting with intense artillery usage on several points along the ceasefire line (map). One main battle ground is the city of Avdeevka in the demilitarized zone north-west of Donetzk city.

The U.S. government propaganda site RFERL sees a "creeping offensive" initiated by the government side. Even the belligerent and anti-Russian Washington Post editors have to acknowledge that the Ukrainian government started this round. While unreasonably blaming Russia they observe:

Ukrainian commanders acknowledge that in recent weeks their forces had moved some positions forward in the no-man’s land between the front lines.

During the last two years the Ukrainian army experienced a massive buildup. New equipment came in from the U.S. and other NATO countries and U.S. training missions tried to teach some basic fighting tactics. 

But while the newly conscripted 250,000 men army looks big on paper it still lacks any coherence and will to fight for the coup government and its U.S. overlords. Only the Nazi "volunteer battalions" have some fighting spirit but they are up against people defending their immediate homes. Any large offense from the government side will thus fail.

The fight was planned and started just after the inauguration of the new U.S. president Trump. Trump has acknowledged that Crimea is part of Russia as its population is overwhelmingly Russian. He has announced to seek good relations with Moscow. He will likely eliminate sanctions against Russia.

For the Ukrainian coup government and its neoconservative supporters this marks the end of their dreams. If it loses U.S. and NATO support the Ukraine must declare bankruptcy, the government will be kicked out and the country will, over time, move naturally back into the Russian sphere.

To prevent that, Poroshenko was ordered to launch a new attack while blaming Russia. He did as his mentors told him and traveled to Berlin in the hope of German support. But such is not coming. The German government let it be known that it sees through his games and has no interest in them.

The government-friendly daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung "leaked" (translated here) that Berlin knows that Poroshenko started the fight to influence Trump and to prevent any sanction relief for Russia. But Berlin believes that the gimmick will fail and Merkel fears that Poroshenko will end up losing another round of the war while Russia will still get the better relations it seeks.

One would hope so. There is nothing to win for western-Europe, or anyone else, in another fight with Russia.

Neither the Trump administration nor the EU has blamed any side for relaunching the conflict. That surely is not in Poroshenko's favor.

The massive buildup of U.S. and NATO troops along the Russian border as well as the renewed fighting in Ukraine are part of the imperial plan initiated under Obama to squeeze Russia into a minor global role. It is an extremely dangerous endeavor. Russian history shows that it will not allow such. Trump will hopefully reverse the Obama plans and, as far as one can currently tell, seeks to arrange friendly cooperation with Russia wherever feasible.

The current attempts in Ukraine to sabotage such rapprochement will probably not be the only ones. Some "accident" in the Baltic or "mistake" in Syria could surely be arranged by "deep state" rogue force. If such happens nether side should fall for it.

[END REPORT]

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I've had done with feeling sorry for John McCain

Senator McCain needs to move to Poland, or Georgia or Ukraine, or anywhere else his heart and head really are, because they're not here in the United States of America. The same goes for the rest of the 'Get Russia' crowd in the United States, who think nothing of starting a war with Russia to please the utterly corrupt European governments in NATO. Get out of my country. Take your spouses and your kiddies and your microwaves and your cats and dogs and get the hell out. I've had it. Enough.

Foes of the Trump & Putin Détente -- John Batchelor's discussion with Stephen F. Cohen about the machinations of monsters in the U.S. Congress who got control of the foreign policy establishment in official Washington.

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Moscow putting the cart before the horse with its draft Syrian consitution

“It’s completely unacceptable for a group of people to decide to create a statelet and call it federalism.”

Today AMN reported, Syria rejects Russia’s suggestions on autonomous communities in Syria, including Kurds and included common-sense observations from Syria's representative to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, including the above quote, about points in Moscow's draft constitution that are frankly daft.

(My personal favorite daft point is that in a dispute between international law and Syrian law, the Syrian government would cede to international law. Ahem. Just last year Moscow withdrew Russia from the International Criminal Court in response to the International Community's noises about human rights abuses in Russia and discrimination in Crimea.)

Yesterday Sputnik published the complete text of the draft constitution, which the Russian government drew up for presentation to 'opposition' groups in attendance at the Astana meeting January 23-24 and also at a meeting in Moscow on January 27 between the Russian government and members of the Syrian opposition to further review the draft constitution.  (See this January 26 report from Sputnik on the high points of draft.)

Sputnik also reported, somewhat defensively perhaps, that the "Syrian diaspora" in Russia had contributed to "elaborations" in the draft document. 

As to what Syria's government actually thinks of Moscow's efforts to rewrite the Syrian Constitution -- I think they think that whatever helps to peel a few more Syrians away from Terrorist, Inc., it's worth a try. 

But what Syrians really need right now was hilariously underscored in Sputnik's report today, Saudi-Backed Syrian Opposition Schools UN Envoy De Mistura Over 'Intervention.'
  
You read that right. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

And that's the central problem: the unasked-for intervention of foreign governments in Syria. Unless this problem is resolved, Moscow can write draft constitutions up the ying-yang and the UN can hold endless meetings in Switzerland, and nothing is going to change.

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Attn BBC: The "United States" has NOT sent a firefighting plane to Chile

Report from Business Insider: Chile wildfires have already destroyed more than a million acres of land. See the 1 minute video at Business Insider, published 21 hours ago.

The BBC has reported today that the "United States" (as well as Brazil and Russia) has sent a supertanker firefighting plane to Chile. Airmed & Rescue reported on January 26 that the American supertanker plane was hired by a Chilean expat millionaire at the cost of $2 million, according to the Guardian.  So this help was strictly private, not representing assistance from the American federal government or any U.S. state.

Would it be helpful if the "United States" sent a supertanker? Well yeah, but the "United States" is much too busy running around Eastern Europe and the Middle East to bother with helping a regional neighbor that could really use firefighting help right now.

[flipping a pen in the air]

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"The surprising link between air pollution and Alzheimer's disease"

By Melissa Healy
31 January 2017
The Los Angeles Times

[...]

For older women, breathing air that is heavily polluted by vehicle exhaust and other sources of fine particulates nearly doubles the likelihood of developing dementia, finds a study published Tuesday. And the cognitive effects of air pollution are dramatically more pronounced in women who carry a genetic variant, known as APOE-e4, which puts them at higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. 

 [Pundita note: dementia, a set of symptoms, shouldn't be confused with Alzheimer's, a brain disease]

In a nationwide study that tracked the cognitive health of women between the ages of 65 and 79 for 10 years, those who had the APOE-e4 variant were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia if they were exposed to high levels of air pollution than APOE-e4 carriers who were not.

Among carriers of that gene, older women exposed to heavy air pollution were close to four times likelier than those who breathed mostly clean air to develop “global cognitive decline” — a measurable loss of memory and reasoning skills short of dementia.

While scientists have long tallied the health costs of air pollution in asthma, lung disease and cardiovascular disease, the impact of air pollutants on brain health has only begun to come to light. This study gleans new insights into how, and how powerfully, a key component of urban smog scrambles the aging brain.

Published Tuesday in the journal Translational Psychiatry, the research looks at a large population of American women, at lab mice, and at brain tissue in petri dishes to establish a link between serious cognitive decline and the very fine particles of pollution emitted by motor vehicles, power plants and the burning of biomass products such as wood.

All three of these biomedical research methods suggest that exposure to high levels of fine air pollutants increases both dementia’s classic behavioral signs of disorientation and memory loss as well as its less obvious hallmarks. These include amyloid beta protein clumps in the brain and the die-off of cells in the brain’s hippocampus, a key center for memory formation.

Using air pollution standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, researchers found significant differences on all those measures between those who breathed clean air and those exposed to pollution levels deemed unsafe.

In lab mice, breathing air collected over the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles led to brain concentrations of amyloid protein that were more dense and more likely to form dangerous clumps than breathing air that satisfied EPA standards before 2012. When lab mice were bred with a strong predisposition to develop dementia and its hallmarks, the brain differences between pollution-breathing animals and those that breathed clean air were starker.

In 2011, a study in the journal Lancet found that those who lived close to densely trafficked roads were at a far higher risk of stroke and dementia than those who lived farther away. A year later, a team led by Alzheimer’s disease researcher Dr. Samuel Gandy at Mt. Sinai in New York first established that air pollutants induced inflammation, cell death and the buildup of amyloid protein in the brains of mice.

The new study extends those findings.

[...]

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